Forever & Always
by ArtsyFreak18
Summary: A school of magic has been shut down due to a horrible disaster and some of the students transfer over to Hogwarts. One in particular catches the eye of a famous blond-haired Slytherin. Does he want to take her seriously or is she just another one nighter
1. Chapter 1

**I used to be an avid member of this site years ago but I fell out of it for a while. I'm now in college and I recently found myself in need of SOMETHING to read and with no books around, I decided to explore this site once more and quickly fell back in love. So I remade an account and now I'm going to post my first story for the first time in a really long time. Don't be shy when it comes to reviewing either! I'd love to hear from you and take any suggestions! I love constructive criticism but refrain from flaming. Thank you! I hope you enjoy the story!**

**DISCLAIMER: J.K. Rowling owns all rights to Harry Potter. I merely play with her ideas. **

**P.S. This takes place with everyone in their seventh year assuming Harry, Hermione, and Ron all attended their seventh year. I have read all the books and watched all the movies so I know the true positions of everyone in the final book staff wise but in this Dumbledore is not dead and is still headmaster, Snape is the Defense against the dark arts professor, and Slughorn is the potions professor. Just take into note I do recognize this was not the set up for the seventh year. Thanks again! Enjoy!**

+CHAPTER 1+

She sat awkwardly at one of the four, long dining tables. She hated this. She didn't know anyone and the few people she did know all were in different houses. Aside from one person she really disliked and a few she didn't really talk to or didn't know well, she didn't know anyone at the Gryffindor table which was even weirder because she wasn't even a first year. Her old school had been shut down at the end of her sixth year because of a fire that ripped through the building and a lack of funding/donors willing to repair it. It was known for having great academics but was one of the poorest schools around and was headed in a downwards spiral for years, so it didn't take anyone by surprise when the news got around that the school wasn't going to be rebuilt. There weren't many students either, about 300 or so and about a third came to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. She was just glad that she had set up a special visit over the summer to be sorted and get tours aside from the prying eyes of the rest of the student body. She saw that many of the other students that had formerly attended her old school had done the same while others were mixed in with the first years getting sorted. After the sorting was all done and there were some oddly tall students mixed in with the puny first years at the ends of each of the tables. She jumped a little when all sorts of food just appeared in the middle of the tables out of nowhere. There was everything you could possibly imagine! And if there somehow wasn't something you wanted you need only close your eyes and think about it for a few seconds and it would appear on your plate in front of you. She watched as students around her dug in and laughed and talked and enjoyed their dinner. As good as the food looked, she felt a little queasy from the nerves of starting at a new school. She managed to drag a chicken leg and a spoonful of mashed potatoes on her plate as she nervously started picking at it. She stared down at her plate wondering if it would make her life easier to just try and talk to the person next to her when someone beat her to it.

"Hey, who are you? I've never seen you before. Are you a student?" She looked up to see someone with flaming red hair and pale, freckled, skin mumble through mouthfuls of food. He was suddenly struck in the back of the head by a girl that was sitting right next to him and directly across from her.

"Ron! Don't be so rude! And of course she's a student! Look at her Robes!" The girl turned around to face her. "I'm sorry about him. He's really hasn't got a brain-to-mouth filter. My name is Hermione Granger, this is Ron Weasley and right on your left happens to be Harry Potter."

"Oh, don't worry about it. I'm sure he didn't mean it that way. And it's nice to meet you. My name is Samantha Thomas. But he really isn't completely off. I'm new." She didn't even flinch at hearing that Harry Potter was sitting right next to her. Of course it was amazing but she had known beforehand that he attended Hogwarts and didn't doubt that she would run into him eventually.

"Really? Why weren't you up there getting sorted?" Harry asked curiously.

"Oh, I really didn't want to be standing around awkwardly with the first years. I would've stuck out horribly so I organized a visit over the summer to get sorted and get tours so I could sit awkwardly at the table with everyone else." She smirked a little and Harry chuckled.

"If you don't mind me asking, why did you transfer? It just doesn't seem to happen a whole lot and we seem to have an oddly high amount of transfers this year." Hermione asked inquisitively.

"Well, my old school was shut down at the end of last year. There was a fire and no funding to rebuild so they called it quits." She shrugged it off. "Shit happens."

"Tell me about it." Ron mumbled. Hermione elbowed him hard in the ribs making him cough up a piece of bread. "Why do you always have to hit me? Why can't I ever eat in piece?" He whined. She ignored him and continued with her conversation.

"Well I think that's horrible, but I'm sure you'll like it here. Have you been up to the Gryffindor common room yet?"

"No, I had to go directly here with everyone else and Dumbledore skipped it on the tour saying that it was something he wanted me to wait until my first day to experience it."

"Well, how about we show you it after dinner?" Harry asked with a friendly smile on his face.

"Sounds great!" She smiled back.

From across the hall a certain blond-haired Slytherin sat lazily with his friends. He glanced over at the Gryffindor table and found Potter, Weasel, and the Mudblood. But they were talking to someone else… Well Potter and Granger were anyways. Weasley was just stuffing his face as per usual. "Hey, Zabini."

"What?" Zabini glanced up at him from his food. He was starving and didn't really feel like talking.

"Who are Mudblood and Potter talking to?" He asked nonchalantly.

Zabini glanced over at the table. "How the hell should I know? I've never seen her before in my life." He turned back to his food and continued eating. Draco just shrugged his shoulders and continued to heat as well while Parkinson continued to babble on and on about the places she visited over the summer.

Dinner ended and the four got up from the Gryffindor table and began venturing through the many halls of Hogwarts. As they made their way up the changing staircases and to the painting of the fat lady, Harry said the password. "Pickled Eggs!" and the fat lady nodded with a smile, "Welcome back Harry, Hermione, and Ron." The painting swung forward and revealed the portrait hole that led to the common room. It was gorgeous and amazingly homey and the same time. Hermione brought her up to the girls' dormitories and there she found her things on one of the beds.

"Oh, look! Your bed is right next to mine!" She smiled at Samantha.

They prepared for bed and got cozy but Samantha had a hard time sleeping so she decided to read. She quickly got swept up in the book and it wasn't until hours had passed that she finally decided she had had enough reading for one night. It was 2 am. Her stomach growled and she immediately regretted not eating much at dinner. She decided to venture out and see if she could find food somewhere or at the very least, explore a little more and ignore the hunger pains. There was no way she was going to be able to sleep right now anyways. She never could when she was hungry. She threw on some slippers and grabbed her wand. She was only wearing a pair of tiny sleeping shorts and a tank top but it was still early September so the weather was still warm enough at night to get away with it. She tip-toed down the stairs and out the portrait hole.

Draco was incredibly bored. His parents had made him accept the position as prefect. He didn't even want it. But now he was stuck making his rounds through the castle halls. He only liked this when he actually caught someone trying to sneak around to do whatever and he got to bust them. Last year he even made a second year cry because he was so afraid of getting turned in to filch. But of course he was still turned in. he smirked at the memory and continued to wander.

She made her way down to the dining hall, not finding a single person or scrap of food. To be honest she wasn't really expecting too. But she hoped. She decided to just wander around and see what she could see instead. She was already out so she might as well make use of her time.

Draco had taken too kicking a little pebble around as he walked down the halls. He decided to make his way to the library as that seemed to be a favorite destination for light night/early morning wanderers.

Samantha was beginning to get kind of bored but at the same time she enjoyed the peacefulness of the empty halls and dark corridors, along with the eerie-ness to it all. She began to hum a song. She wasn't sure what song it was. She just sort of made up the tune and went along with it. She swayed as she walked and spun a couple times as she continued to walk. She crossed through a couple of the courtyards and continued humming.

Draco was just about to the library when he heard something. It sounded like a voice. But it wasn't just a voice. It sounded like humming. He began to walk quietly in the direction of the humming.

Samantha started to think and gradually her mind slipped to her older brother. He is still one of her favorite people in the world but he made a lot of mistakes in his lifetime already and he was hitting a really rough time. He had problems with drugs and continuously stole to support his habits. As much as she loved him she refused to see him if he was on something but always encouraged him to quit. She hadn't seen him in a few months but he gave her some of her best childhood memories. She had so many of them playing with their dogs or him taking her to the park as a child or teaching her how to ride a bike. Their mother had died at a very young age. She was killed by Voldemort for being a staunch defender of Dumbledore's army. They were always well looked over by their father but her brother seemed to play the role of a second father at times. She was much attached to bother her brother and father. When they lived together, he would cook for her and make sure she did her homework and put her to bed. It wasn't until she started going away to school that he started truly having problems and they became separated. Before she even realized it she began singing. (A/N: This song is 'Innocent' by Taylor Swift.)

"_I guess you really did it this time,_

_Left yourself in your warpath,_

_Lost your balance on a tightrope,_

_Lost your mind tryin' to get it back._

_Wasn't it easier in your lunchbox days?_

_Always a bigger bed to crawl into,_

_Wasn't it beautiful when you believed in everything?_

_And everybody believed in you?"_

Draco noticed that the humming turned into singing and continued towards the source. As he got closer he began to realize that whoever it was had a beautiful voice. He started to be able to make out what she was saying and listened intently.

"_It's alright, just wait and see,_

_Your string of lights is still bright to me,_

_Oh, who you are is not where you've been,_

_You're still an innocent, you're still an innocent._

_Did some things you can't speak of,_

_But at night you live it all again,_

_You wouldn't be shattered on the floor now,_

_If only you had seen what you know now then."_

He slowly began to realize the gravity of the song. Whoever this girl was she was troubled about something or worried about someone.

"_Wasn't it easier in your firefly catchin' days?_

_And everything out of reach, someone bigger brought down to you,_

_Wasn't it beautiful runnin' wild 'til you fell asleep?_

_Before the monsters caught up to you?_

_It's alright, just wait and see,_

_Your string of lights is still bright to me,_

_Oh, who you are is not where you've been,_

_You're still an innocent."_

His curiosity was starting to overwhelm him as he sped up his pace.

"_It's okay; life is a tough crowd,_

_32 and still growin' up now,_

_Who you are is not what you did,_

_You're still an innocent._

_Time turns flames to embers; you'll have new Septembers,_

_Every one of us has messed up too,_

_Minds change like the weather, I hope you remember,_

_Today is never too late to be brand new."_

She continued to sing and deep down she hoped her brother could hear her wherever he may be and whatever he may be doing.

Draco had reached a corner and saw a light lighting up the hall. He turned his head around the corner and saw a girl. The light was coming from the tip of her wand and she was the source of the singing. She didn't seem to notice him and she was walking in his direction. He flattened himself against the wall behind a suit of armor and peaked out at her trying to identify her but the light kept him from seeing her features.

"_It's alright, just wait and see,_

_Your string of lights is still bright to me,_

_Oh, who you are is not where you've been,_

_You're still an innocent._

_Its okay, life is a tough crowd,_

_32 and still growin' up now,_

_Who you are is not what you did,_

_You're still an innocent, you're still an innocent."_

She finally got close enough to him where he could see her face and he was pleasantly surprised. She had long chocolate brown hair that reached her elbows. It was perfectly straight and sleek except for a slight curl at the bottom. Her eyes were a sparkling blue and her lips were full but small. As she got even closer he was able to make out the rest of her body. She had a perfect hourglass figure.

"_Lost your balance on a tightrope,_

_It's never too late to get it back."_

"She's gorgeous." He mumbled. He didn't expect her to jump and turn right around, shining her light right on him. "Damn! Turn the light down will you?" He scowled.

"Who are you and what are you doing here?" She snapped. Her face was gleaming red. She never sang in front of anyone. She was convinced that she was alone.

"I could ask you the same thing!" he bit back and folded his arms over his chest.

She glared at him before spinning on her heels and trying to storm off in the opposite direction. He just followed her.

"I'm not going to leave you alone until you tell me who you are and what you are doing."

"I asked you first! Besides it's none of your business what I'm doing."

"Actually it is. I'm a prefect and I'm on my night rounds." He stated matter-of-factly.

"And what's that supposed to mean to me?" She continued to walk in the direction she suspected the common room was but the horrific truth was, she wasn't quite sure where it was.

He looked completely baffled. "How could you not know what a prefect is? Are you new here? Because you sure don't look like a first year to me!"

"F.Y.I. I actually AM new so I WOULDN'T know!" She spat. She felt kind of bad for being so rude but she was extremely embarrassed and just wanted to escape to her bed and try and forget this ever happened.

He stopped for a moment and thought before it struck him. "What house and year are you?"

"7th year Gryffindor, as if it were any of your business." She continued to walk around aimlessly.

He realized that they had already pretty much made a circle around the library. "Where are you trying to go?" 

"I'm going back to my common room!" She was so frustrated! This would only happen to her.

"Well you're going the wrong way."

"What?" She hissed at him.

"You're. Going. The. Wrong. Way." He repeated himself and slowed down his pronunciation.

"I know what you said, I'm not stupid."

"Then why did you say 'what'?"

Her face turned a whole other shade of red and she tried to walk past him in the other direction but he put his arm out and stopped her. "What do you want!"

"Look, I won't report you to Filch for being out past curfew and I'll bring you back to your common room if you just tell me your name."

She glared deeply at him. That was the last thing she wanted him to know. Now he'd be able to tell the whole school who he caught singing in the middle of a corridor at 2 am instead of just 'some girl'. After thinking about it and trying to see if she had any other decisions she finally decided she had no other options.

"Samantha Thomas."

"See now that wasn't so hard was it?"

+END CHAPTER 1+

**Well that's it for chapter one. I kind of winged it considering I don't really have a set direction for it yet but I have plenty of ideas. If anyone has any ideas please feel free to throw them at me! Please review! :)**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hello, I hope you liked my first chapter! Here's my attempt at chapter #2!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or its characters. **

+CHAPTER 2+

Samantha huffed and crossed her arms over her chest while he led the way. "So, I told you my name. What's yours?"

"Turn that light off so no one sees us." He stated, blatantly ignoring her question.

"Why don't we want anyone to see us?" She was giving him an odd look, like she didn't completely trust him.

"Because it is against the rules to be out after curfew. I can because I'm making my rounds and purposely looking for kids like you. If another prefect or, worse, Filch sees us I'll have no choice but to turn you in, or else I'll lose my title as prefect. And if you get caught out this late there are no warnings, you'll immediately get detention and depending on the punishment and whether or not you are well liked could be a joke or the most terrifying thing you've ever done."

She rolled her eyes, convinced he was just trying to scare her but resigned to dimming her wand to blackness. "Now tell me your name."

"You don't need to know my name." He was just playing with her. He knew it would drive her nuts and that's what he wanted. She surely wouldn't forget this night if she were constantly trying to figure out his name.

"Well that's hardly fair! I told you mine!" She tried halting in her tracks, refusing to go anywhere else. "Tell me your name or I'll go no farther with you."

"You're loss." He glanced back for a second to see if she had really stopped walking but didn't stop himself. He turned a corner and he was out of her sight.

She swayed to the side a little to see if she could see him but no such luck. She couldn't even hear footsteps. She looked around but couldn't see anything in the dark so she forfeited her attempt at protesting him and ran off in his direction and whipped around the corner where she crashed into something hard and much taller than her. He held her arms so she wouldn't fall. "For the record, you're in no position to be trying to bargain with ME, princess." He let go and continued walking.

"Excuse me? Princess?" She sputtered and followed him.

He ignored her comment. "Will you quiet down? Someone is going to hear us." He mumbled and carefully looked around each corner before continuing down the hall. She crossed arms again and glared at the only thing she could see, his blond hair practically shining in the near blackness. Suddenly he stiffed up and grabbed her arm, yanking her over to the side of the hall, hiding behind a suit of armor.

"What are you-?" He clamped a hand over her mouth and held her against his chest while whispering an invisibility charm.

"Don't move." He whispered sternly in her ear. She shivered a little and she wasn't sure why. But in no less than five seconds a grimy old man came hobbling around the corner. He was holding a lantern and a cat followed closely at his feet. '_This must be that Filch guy he's been talking about._' Her foot slipped a little making the charm flicker and Draco hissed and held her tighter because of it. He was holding her so tight she was hardly even touching the ground anymore. '_He can't keep this up can he? I'm not light. He must be pretty strong. Well I can hardly breathe so he must be.'_ Filch stopped, staring in their direction. She winced. It felt like she was being crushed up against stone, warm stone.

'_Shit, if Filch catches us now, there's no way I can talk my way out of this. I'll be guaranteed to lose my title then Mother and Father will be furious.' _ He was growing more angry the closer Filch looked at them. Then as suddenly as he came, he shrugged, mumbled something about kids these days and hobbled off with the cat in tow. '_Thank Merlin._' He sighed in relief. He hadn't even realized that he was holding his breath. Once he was sure Filch was out of ear-shot he released the charm and dropped Samantha.

"Jeez, squeeze a little tighter why don't you." She coughed a little getting her breath back.

"I wouldn't have had to if you hadn't slipped! And how do you slip standing still?" He was unbelievably irritated with her.

"I was forced to stand on my toes because of the way you were holding me and, I don't know, my leg started shaking and gave!" She was so tired of this. All she wanted to do was go to bed. He decided against continuing the argument for fear of a repeat of Filch and just continued walking while she followed steadily behind him.

After a few minutes of silence he decided he had questions. "So in all seriousness, what were you doing out this late?"

She sighed, knowing she had no choice but to answer for fear of not getting back to the common room. "I was hungry. I was hoping I could find food somewhere."

"You didn't eat at dinner? And where did you expect to find food at this hour?"

"No I didn't eat… I… wasn't hungry." She wasn't about to tell him it was because she was stupid and nervous. "I was hoping there would be something left in the dining hall. I kind of knew there wouldn't be but I couldn't sleep so I figured it was worth a shot."

He thought for a second then stopped. He stopped and tapped his wand on the floor a few times. Within seconds a house elf appeared out of nowhere. "What can I get for you master?"

"I need you to make her something to eat. She didn't eat at dinner and is very hungry now. Leave it in the Gryffindor common room when you are done and tell no one what you are doing and that you saw either of us out here."

"Yes, Master." He disappeared as quickly as he came.

She looked astonished, but thankful. "Thank you. I appreciate it." He nodded and made a grunt to signify that she was welcome. They continued on in silence. When they finally reached the portrait of the Fat Lady he bowed low and began to walk off. "Thank you again!" But he was gone before she could say anything else. She sighed and said the password and entered the common room. Just like he had asked, there was a huge plate of food sitting on the coffee table in the middle of the common room. She sat down and ate eagerly. She finished quickly then headed straight to bed where she finally fell asleep but her dreams were less than peaceful.

Draco neared the end of his rounds and started heading back towards his common room. When he got back he was thankful to find the room empty. He sat down in front of the fireplace for a few so he could think. '_Why on Earth was I so nice to that girl? Sure she was attractive but I've been known to make even the prettiest girl cry for absolutely no reason at all. Not only did I help her but I hid her from Filch when I could've just hid myself and ditched her and I even got her food! What is going on? I must be going completely insane. Draco Malfoy is NOT nice.'_ He continued to sit and ponder his weird behaviors for an entire hour before he resigned to the fact that he must have been under some sort of charm or curse and went to bed hoping to sleep it off.

Samantha dreamt that she was being chased around by Filch and his cat, except they were both the size of fully grown trolls. Then the same blond haired boy came out of nowhere, the same size as Filch, and got rid of them both. Then he turned to her and picked her up with one of his huge hands and brought her up to his eye level. He gave her a wicked smirk then laughed hysterically, then she woke up. She was cold but sweating horribly. What a night. She decided that she wasn't going to get anymore sleep so she got up to shower. By the time she got back to her dormitory, just about all the other girls were wandering around in a sleep-filled haze. Some left to take showers and some just got dressed. Samantha just grabbed her books and sat in the common room waiting for Hermione to finish getting ready and hoping she would show her to some of her classes.

Her first class of the day was Defense against the dark arts with Harry, Ron, and Hermione. They walked in and took their seats. She quickly discovered that the same blond haired boy from last night was in her class too. She was determined to find out his name and so while Professor Snape took attendance she listened intently, but she was quickly disappointed when she discovered that he only called names of people he didn't know or didn't see immediately. The Blond Boy's name was not called which meant the professor knew him well and saw him. She huffed and halfway through the class a piece of paper in the shape of a bird discreetly flew itself over to her desk and unfolded in front of her. It said; '_Did you figure it out yet?'_ She glared at it and tapped Hermione, who was sitting right next to her, on the shoulder. She turned towards Samantha. "What's the name of the blond boy sitting near the back of the room?"

Hermione turned to look, even though she already suspected who it was. When she caught sight of the only blond boy in the back of the room, he glared back at her, and she turned back around. "That's just Draco Malfoy. He's the biggest prat in the school. I wouldn't go near him if I were you." Samantha looked confused but scribbled the name down on the note and it folded itself back up and flew back to its original sender.

"Is he really? He helped me out a great deal last night…" She hated to admit it but he really did help her.

Hermione looked utterly baffled. "What? What happened?"

"Granger! Thomas! No talking!" Snape spat out. They jumped at his sudden outburst.

"I'll tell you after class."

Hermione nodded and the note flew back once Snape's back was turned. It said; '_Well it's about time princess.'_ Her face turned a slight shade of red out of frustration from the comment and she scribbled a response. '_Why do you keep calling me that?'_ But she never got a response.

After class she had wanted to confront Draco about why he kept calling her 'princess' but he was gone as soon as the class was dismissed. But she was already being attacked my Hermione with questions anyways. "Come on, I'll tell you at lunch." So she told Hermione all about what happened, conveniently leaving out the part about her singing.

"Wow, I didn't think he had it in him to be helpful." She mumbled.

"Why? What does he do to earn such a bad rap?"

Hermione sighed. "Well for starters, Harry, Ron, and I are his favorite targets for insults and harassment, His favorite hobby is making kids cry, and he's the richest snob in the school. I could go on if you'd like?"

"No, no, that's fine." Samantha was so confused, she almost wished she had refused to tell him her name and got turned in.

At lunch, Draco couldn't help his gaze always turning to her. She was just so curious. He had so many questions and he didn't know why.

"Hey, what's your problem?" His thoughts were immediately interrupted by Zabini.

"What do you mean?" He asked, irritated.

"You've been quiet all day and you're constantly staring at that new girl."

"I am not."

"Oh yes you are. You were staring at her all through class too and you were staring at her just now."

"What do you want Zabini?"

"I want to know what's going on. You can't hide stuff from me, mate." Zabini crossed his arms and sat back, waiting for his reply.

"I don't know. She's just… interesting."

"How so?"

"Well between you and me, I bumped into her while I was doing my rounds last night…"

"Oh, I see where this is going."

"No, not that. She was… Singing."

"Why?"

"I have no idea. But the song was heavy. It had a lot behind it. It sounded like she was really troubled about something too."

"And you care why, exactly?"

"I don't. But I'm curious to know what she was singing about."

"So ask her."

"I can't just ask her!"

"Well why the hell not?"

"I don't know. I guess I could. I can't explain it. She just seems so different."

"Try to explain."

"Well, she's one of the only girls to not fall at my feet." It was a regular thing for a majority of the girls in any of the houses to pine over him. I mean, why wouldn't they? He's rich and attractive and an ass! For some reason girls always seemed to be more attracted to the assholes. He was easily known as the School Heart-throb. His only real competition for that title was Harry Potter. He was the famous, all-around nice guy.

"So make her fall at your feet."

"What do you mean?"

"Oh, don't play dumb. You couldn't have possibly forgotten about what your parents said. They said if you don't get a fiancé by your birthday, they'll arrange one for you. And even though a majority of the girls think you're the best thing to ever grace the Earth, I don't think any of them would agree to marry you. They know your reputation for not sticking with one girl for longer than a single night and your attitude can only be tolerated by most for so long. The only girl I know would jump at the chance to marry you is Parkinson and I know you don't want to marry her. Sure she puts out but being married to her? Blegh. Take this girl as a chance to restart and try something new. Try being committed to one girl for once. And if it doesn't work out and you're not interested, just make a fool out of her because she's a Gryffindor and take Parkinson. You know your parents are just going to set you up with Parkinson anyways because they know her parents and family well."

"Hmm… I think you might be onto something Zabini."

"Of course I am."

Draco's birthday was in January, and it was September, which meant he had about four months to make her love him. He was convinced he only needed a week, I mean, what girl wouldn't jump at the chance to be with him forever?

+END CHAPTER 2+

**Please Review! I'm kind of happy about the direction this is going in and I don't know if there is a website that has the actual birthdays of the Harry Potter characters but for the purposes of this story, I want his birthday to be in January. Thanks for reading!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Here's chapter three!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.**

+CHAPTER 3+

-a couple days after the run in with Draco in the hallway-

Samantha was sitting in the courtyard of the school. She had a sketchbook open in her lap and was sketching random things to pass the time. She went from trees to flowers to bugs to a squirrel she caught darting between bushes and up a tree and every now and then she was graced with the presence of a bird. "Those are very good sketches." She nearly jumped out of her skin and her book flew out of her lap and onto the floor. Draco jumped back a little at her reaction. She whipped her head around.

"Was that REALLY necessary?" She took some deep breathes and calmed down.

"I guess I could've thought that one out a little better." He shrugged it off and took a seat next to her, picking up her sketch book and starting to flip through it.

She snatched it out of his hands. "Excuse you!"

"I didn't burp."

She glared at him. "This is private!"

"Private? You were sketching a squirrel." He sighed. "Fine. I'm sorry."

She set her book down on the other side of her. "Well, can I help you?"

"Help me with what?" He was purposely trying to be oblivious and get on her nerves.

She sighed. "You sat down next to me, I assumed you needed something."

"Well, not really. I was just curious about what you were drawing, but come to think of it, I do have a couple questions."

She was wary about it but didn't turn him away. "Well what is it?"

"I was thinking about it and I wanted to know, who you were singing about a couple nights ago."

She turned away thinking about if she should tell him or not. "Why do you want to know?"

"I'm just curious. It sounded like a heavy song." He still wasn't sure why he kept finding himself actually caring about who she was singing about.

"I'd rather not…"

"Boyfriend?"

"No!"

"Father?"

"No."

"Friend?"

"Sort of."

"Brother?" She paused. "Ah, I see." Her face turned a little red. "Well if you don't want to talk about it that's alright. But I wouldn't mind hearing about it."

"Why do you care so much?" She was suddenly very irritated and her eyes burned with the threat of tears. "You don't know me! You don't know anything about me! So why do you care?" There they were, one after another the tears began to spill out and she wasn't sure why so she began to wipe them with her sleeve quickly.

"Why are you crying? I just asked a question!" He was so confused!

"Why do you keep avoiding my questions?"

He stopped for a moment and thought before he answered. "I don't know."

"What?"

"I don't know how to answer your question because I don't know myself."

"So you mean to tell me you didn't know your name the other night?" She crossed her arms and glared at him.

"No I was just trying to bug you then."

"Oh, thanks! I appreciate it!"

"No problem."

"So you don't know why you care to know why I was singing about my brother." She was just as confused as him.

"Precisely."

"Well why don't you know?"

"I don't know! You're completely right! I don't know you! So why should I care? I have no idea but I do! Maybe I don't! Maybe I'm just nosy!" He gave her a sarcastic smile. She had suddenly decided that she had had enough and stood up and began to leave. "Samantha! Wait! I didn't mean…" but she was already out of ear-shot. "Great." He looked down on the bench and saw her sketchbook sitting there. "You forgot your precious sketchbook." He mumbled. He picked it up and looked at the cover. It was a sleep black and on the back corner it said her initials S.T. '_Should I look through it?'_ This could be his chance to actually learn something about her. He decided he wouldn't give it back right away and he would think about it for a bit. He headed back to his common room with it.

Samantha had stormed off to her common room. She decided that a shower and a good book would get her mind off of her frustration. She was in the shower when it hit her like a ton of bricks. "I forgot my sketchbook." She whispered to herself. She let out a shrill scream and proceeded to sob. '_I have YEARS of my artwork in there! That's one of my most prized possessions! Stupid Draco! I bet he did it on purpose! He was upset because I wouldn't let him look at it!'_ Hermione burst into the girls' bathroom.

"WHAT is going ON?" She asked.

Samantha nearly jumped out of the shower hearing her voice. She quickly wrapped herself up in a towel and ran to Hermione who looked extremely concerned if nothing else. "I forgot my sketchbook in the courtyard."

"It's ok! I'm sure whoever finds it will bring it to a professor. We'll get it back!" She assured her.

"No you don't understand! It's like my diary! It's got my whole life in it! And I know who has it because he was sitting next to me when I got up and left it there next to him!"

"Well who has it?" Hermione urged. She began to realize that this must really be more than just a sketchbook to her.

"Draco Malfoy."

Draco sat in his common room with the book sitting on the table in front of him. He didn't open it yet as much as he wanted to. He was still deciding on what to do with it. He was leaning more towards opening it and reading it. She was really defensive about it and so it could have the answer to his question in it. Zabini plopped down on the couch next to him. "What's up mate?"

Draco grunted a hello but continued to stare at the book.

Zabini looked at him, then at the book, then at him. "What's with the book?" He didn't get an answer so he reached for it when Draco grabbed his arm and yanked it back.

"Don't touch it."

"Well than tell me what it is! What's going on?"

"It's her's."

"Who's?"

"HER'S."

"Oh, her's. Well what is it?"

"A sketchbook."

"So look at it."

"I want to."

"So do it."

"I can't."

"Why not?"

"It's a long story."

"I've got time."

Draco sighed and glared at Zabini. "I saw her in the courtyard sketching so I walked up behind her and was looked at what she was drawing over her shoulder. I said 'Nice drawings.' And she just about shat herself because she didn't see me. She dropped her sketchbook and I picked it up and sat down and started to open it because I wanted to look and she just about shat herself again and took it away. She said it's very personal and didn't want me to look then we got into an argument when I asked her who she was singing about that night and she stormed off… forgetting her sketchbook. I took it and I'm going to give it back but one of the things she yelled was that I don't know her. So I thought I could either look through it and maybe get to know her a little better through what she has in here or I could give it back and try and gain some of her trust and wait for her to tell me herself."

"Well that wasn't a very long story." Zabini mumbled, earning him a glare from Malfoy.

"So what would you do?" Draco prodded.

"Well it depends. Are you aiming to take her seriously and consider trying to get her to agree to marry you eventually or do you want her to be another one night stand so you can settle for Parkinson."

"I still haven't decided…" Just then Pansy Parkinson came hopping into the common room. She spotted Draco and immediately went straight for him. She wrapped her arms around him and squeezed.

"Drakey-poo! I've been looking everywhere for you! I had the nicest dream that you and I got married and your mom came shopping with me for my wedding dress! And then at the reception I announced that I was pregnant!"

Draco had the most horrified look on his face. Zabini tilted his head and looked at him. "Well, what do you think about that Drakey-poo?"

"I think I've made my mind up." He shoved Pansy off of him and took the book, practically running out of the common room.

Samantha was in the middle of the common room staring at the fire. Harry and Ron had left to go try and find Malfoy while Hermione sat next to her and babbled endlessly about classes trying to distract her. Luckily no one else was in the common room at the time. A loud banging distracted them both and Hermione got up and went to the portrait hole nervously. She heard the banging again and pushed open the portrait to find Draco Malfoy yelling at the Fat Lady to shut up.

"Malfoy?"

Samantha whipped her head around as Draco edged his way past Hermione and into the common room. "Granger." He walked up to Samantha and held out the sketchbook. "You left this in the court yard." She snatched it out of his hand and started flipping through the pages in a panic. "You're welcome." He grumbled.

She ignored him. "Did you look in it?" She snarled.

"No, I didn't."

"Why should I believe you?" She crossed her arms and glared at him accusingly while Hermione watched quietly.

"Because I wanted to. You have no idea how close I was to opening it. It bothered me because you were right, I don't know anything about you. But I'd like to. So I figured the better way to get to know you would be if you told me yourself." '_Wow, I'm getting mushy. I want to vomit. But it IS the truth…'_ Draco sighed and turned to walk out of the common room when a pair of arms wrapped around his neck and a very warm body pressed against him. She was hugging him. He stood there and let her hug him, unsure of what he should do. He finally hugged her back and then she let go. She was crying again.

"Thank you so much. You don't know how much this means to me." She bit her lip and ran back up to the girls' dormitories leaving Draco in the middle of the common room with a very shocked Hermione. He turned himself and left.

Ron and Harry wandered around the courtyards and the hallways looking for Malfoy. Finally they spotted a blond with black and green robes headed towards the entrance to the dungeons. They ran after him and Ron grabbed the back of his cloak. "What the hell?" Malfoy spat.

"Give her back her sketchbook, Malfoy!" Harry spat.

"Oh, please. You're a little late Potter."

"What'd you do with it you prat?" Ron hissed.

"I gave it back to her."

"I don't believe you!" Ron fired back pushing him into the wall.

"Well, that's your problem." Draco turned to try and leave but this time Harry stopped him.

"If you're lying, Malfoy, we will come back for you and the only the only recognizable piece of you that'll be left is your hair." Harry threatened through gritted teeth.

"Don't get your panties in a bunch Potter. I told you the truth." He shoved his way past Harry and continued down to the Dungeons.

"He didn't fight back." Ron stated obviously.

"He's different. I don't know why but he is. There's something strange about him now." Harry agreed.

"Yeah did you notice that he didn't even insult us once this year?" Ron said.

"I didn't but I do now that you mention it. It's strange. It's almost like he's just been trying to avoid us altogether." Harry and Ron shrugged and returned to their common room.

Draco was sitting in the Slytherin common room when Snape came in. "Mr. Malfoy," Draco turned his head to look at Snape. "The headmaster wishes to see you in his office." Draco nodded and stood to leave. "What is this about?"

"How should I know? I haven't tortured any kids lately." Draco grumbled and slid past his professor and out of the common room.

Draco knocked on the door to the headmaster's office and was somewhat surprised to see that the golden trio was there too so he must not be in trouble. Right?

"Thank you for joining us Mr. Malfoy, please take a seat." Dumbledore said kindly.

"I'd prefer to stand."

"As you wish." He turned to the other three. "I've called you all here because of a certain issue that has arisen." The four looked at each other oddly. "None of you are in trouble." This just raised more questions than it answered. "I know Mr. Potter, Mr. Weasley, and Ms. Granger all know Samantha Thomas, but do you Mr. Malfoy?" Malfoy nodded yes. "Very good. Well, when she was a child an attempt was made on her life, Instead her mother was killed. She thinks her mother was killed for being a defender of my army but in reality it was her that was the target. You see, her parents were always on our side, but their son, her old brother, has always been suspected to affiliate himself with You-Know-Who. She is unaware of this fact. A hit-man was sent by You-Know-Who to their home, which they knew the location of through her older brother. The plan was simple, send a warning to her mother and father to renounce their loyalty to me and exchange it for loyalty to you-know-who. Her mother and father both were very strong with magic and well known in the wizarding world for the power they held. But when the hit-man got there, his orders were to kill the baby girl, but the baby girl was out of the house with her father. So, knowing the dark lord would be infuriated by his failure, didn't want to leave the house empty handed and killed her mother. The dark lord was still infuriated by this because he wanted her and the father alive. They were valuable and he killed one of them. So now since the dark lord has returned he decided to go back and instead of trying to kill her, he killed her older brother for trying to renounce his faith for the dark lord after his disappearance. So she knows not of her brother's betrayal or of the truth behind her mother's death, but she has either been informed very recently or will be receiving a letter tonight informing her of the death of her brother. The suspicion was that her and her brother were always very close so in order to keep her safe, his brother sent them on a day he knew she wouldn't be home and thought the house would be empty. He hadn't wanted any of them to get hurt, another reason why you-know-who, chose to kill him. The reason I am informing you of this is simple. She is going to be in great distress when she discovers that her brother is dead if she hasn't already and I want the three of you," He signaled to Ron, Harry, and Hermione, "to console her and keep an eye on her to make sure she is alright. You Mr. Malfoy, I want to be an 'outside eye' so to speak. To see what everyone else around her sees and so that you are well aware of her situation considering you aren't just a prefect anymore, you're head prefect. I'm also aware that you have classes with her as well and I wish for you to keep a close eye on her too, especially when these three are not around."

Draco nodded. "I will."

At dinner Samantha sat with Ron, Harry, and Hermione like usual but purposely sat with her back to the Slytherin table. Before Dinner started, Dumbledore had a few announcements to make.

"It has come to my attention that there is some real division among the student houses. We have been thinking it over and we've come up with two events that we feel can bring us a little more on the same page. First of all, we recognized that during the year Hogwarts played host to the tri-wizard tournament, the Yule ball seemed to provide a magnificent source of entertainment but it was restricted to fourth years and up. We will be having another ball but it will be open to all students. The exact date has not yet been chosen but it will be in December." A rippled of excited whispers took hold of the students. Dumbledore raised his hands and after a minute or two everyone fell silent. "Second, we've decided to hold a talent show! Auditions will be held in one month and finalists will perform in front of the student body a month after the auditions have been completed. This also is open to students of all ages and there will be a prize for the winner which has not been decided on yet." More excited whispers took hold of the students and instead of silencing them all Dumbledore signaled the start of dinner and food sprung up on all of the tables.

The four were excited about both the ball and the talent show. "Sam, you should do the talent show!" Hermione said excitedly.

"What makes you think I have a good enough talent to show?" She said amused.

"Oh please, I've heard you singing in the shower! You have an amazing voice!" Sam's face turned red at this.

"You sing?" Harry asked, interested.

"No!" She gasped.

"You lie!" Hermione stated. "Her voice is beautiful!"

Her face turned even redder. "I don't know…"

"Well, think about it at least. It could be really fun!" Ron tapped Hermione on the shoulder. "Yes, Ron?"

"Hermione, I was hoping you would go to the ball with me." Ron asked, his face going a little red.

"Ron, of course I'll go with you. I mean I AM dating you."

"Yes, that's true, but I was afraid of a repeat of the last ball…"

Hermione smiled and hugged Ron giving him a small kiss which he instantly perked up at.

Harry looked over at Sam nervously when suddenly Owls flew in with the mail and everyone's attention immediately went to the birds. Packages and letters were dropped in front of various people. Sam wasn't expecting anything it had only been about a week since she started but an owl swooped down to her but what he dropped wasn't a letter or a package, it was a bouquet of white roses. There was a little card in the bouquet that read '_I'm Sorry. –DM'_ She was utterly confused. What was he apologizing for? Harry looked over her shoulder at the card and his face turned read when he saw the initials. Before she really had time to think about it though, another owl dropped something else for her. It was a letter, from her father. She couldn't imagine why he would be writing a letter to her, he never wrote to her when she went to her old school. '_Something bad must have happened…'_ She tore open the letter and began reading. As she read, her eyes began to burn with tears and she quickly got up and ran from the dining hall without a word to her friends.

From the other side of the dining hall, Draco saw Sam stand suddenly from the table and run out of the dining hall. Had his flowers upset her in some way? He had not intended them to. He stood as well and headed towards the exit. Zabini grabbed his sleeve. "Where are you going?" But Draco quickly shook him off and kept going. Once he was out of the great hall, he stood and listened for her. His ears were greeted by the sounds of footsteps. He began to run in the direction he heard the sound and it didn't take long before he finally caught up to her. She had run into the courtyard and sat down on a bench… and it was pouring rain. He sighed and ran out to her. He sat down next to her and didn't know what to do other than that. "Are you… okay?" She nodded. He glared at her. "You're lying." She nodded again and broke out into sobs.

+END CHAPTER 3+

**So what'd you think? I've still got a thousand different directions I could take this in and I'm not sure which to take just yet. Well Read and Review! Oh and just so you know, I absolutely detest the pairing of Harry and Ginny in the books so I will not be featuring them.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Here's chapter four! I've been waiting for the new user hold to wear off so all I've been doing is brainstorming for this story. **

**Disclaimer: I do not own HP**

+CHAPTER 4+

Draco sighed. "Come on." He took her hand gently and pulled her up off the bench. She didn't resist or try to even ask where he was taking her. She didn't care. The only thing she was thinking about was her brother. He led her down to the dungeons and towards the Slytherin common room. When they got to the entrance he said the password and quickly pulled her in. Thankfully everyone was at dinner. He took her straight up to his room. He had his own because of his head prefect title. He opened his dresser and pulled out a t-shirt and a pair of loose shorts. "Here, change into something dry." She didn't protest. She just sniffled and he left the room so she could change. He came back in a few minutes later and she was standing in the same spot but at least she had dry clothes on. He pulled back the covers of his bed and led her over to the bed making her lay down and he tucked her in tight.

"W-why are you doing this?" She huffed out between sobs.

"Because right now you don't need the entirety of Gryffindor asking you what's wrong. Right now you just need to relax and be alone and get some rest. I'll bring you breakfast in the morning and I'll notify the professors that you won't be attending class tomorrow. That's the last thing you need." He made sure she was comfortable and turned to leave the room.

"Draco."

He stopped and turned back at her.

"Thank you."

He nodded and left. He decided he had better tell the golden trio where there friend was lest they report her missing. He scribbled out a note and sent it off with an owl. He then settled himself on the couch. It was going to be a long night.

He woke up in the morning with Zabini standing over him. He shoved him away. "The hell?"

Blaise ignored him. "Why were you sleeping on the couch?"

"I don't know. I got tired and fell asleep I guess."

"Yeah, sure. Who's in your bed?" Zabini accused.

"What makes you think I'd willingly give up my king sized bed to a single person in this school?" Draco retorted sleepily.

"Good point."

"Exactly." Draco mumbled and got up and headed up towards his room. When he walked in he wasn't surprised to see that Sam was still in his bed, fast asleep. She looked peaceful. He shook it off then pulled out a piece of paper and wrote her a note telling her he went to breakfast and he'd be back in a half hour. He left with Zabini minutes later. On their way they were stopped by none other than Dumbledore himself.

"Ah, Mr. Malfoy. Exactly the man I wanted to see." Draco looked at him curiously. "Mr. Zabini, if you wouldn't mind giving us some privacy? Mr. Malfoy will meet up with you shortly." Zabini nodded and walked off towards the dining hall. "No one knows where Ms. Thomas is." He stated.

"I do." Draco replied. "She's asleep." He was trying to avoid telling him where.

"And where is she sleeping? I understand she didn't return to the Gryffindor common room last night." He asked carefully.

Draco sighed. "She's in my room. I figured the last thing she'd want is the whole house looming over her head asking her what was wrong."

"And where did you sleep Mr. Malfoy?"

"On the couch in the common room." He said truthfully.

"Very well. If she is comfortable there for now than so be it. I have notified the professors that she will not be attending class today and I will let them know that she is safe and alright." Draco nodded. "But please, Mr. Malfoy, do not toy with her emotions."

"What do you mean?" Draco asked, offended.

"You know what I mean." Dumbledore merely glanced at him over the top of his half-moon spectacles before walking away.

Draco grumbled. "Know it all." He whispered under his breath before he continued off to the dining hall.

He came back with a whole plate of food and a cup of pumpkin juice and set it down on the side table next to his bed. She was still fast asleep. He crumpled up the note and threw it away. Before he turned to leave again she stirred and he turned back to see her eyes blinking open at him. It was fairly early, about 7 am. "Draco?"

"I brought you breakfast." He nodded his head to the table next to her.

"Oh, thank you. But, where did you sleep last night?" She asked curiously.

"On the couch." Her face fell a little. "I have to go to class. I'll be back in a couple hours. Don't leave. The professors aren't expecting you back today. I'll go to the Gryffindor common room and get some of your things after class. I want you to stay another night at least to make sure you're alright. Get some more sleep." Before she even had a chance to protest, he turned around and was out of the room. She sighed and picked at the food he left for her until she fell back asleep.

In his first class, Draco made sure to actually take notes for once. He figured just because Sam was sick and she was obviously not going to make it to class today, she would eventually want to make up any missed work or read up on what she missed. Zabini watched him scribble down everything the professor said and even make illustrations in a couple places. "Jeez, if I didn't know you any better, I'd say you were turning into Granger!"

"Oh, ha ha ha." He faked laughter and continued with his business.

"But, seriously, what's going on?" Zabini could tell there was something up. He always could. And it was pointless to lie to him so Draco explained the situation with Sam. "You'd better behave yourself." He warned.

"Excuse me?" Draco seemed utterly offended.

"I'm saying if you even step a hair out of line and upset her more, Dumbledore will no doubt strip your title of head prefect and take away that room. And I know the only reason why you like being head prefect is for that room." Zabini was right. Why was he always right? Because he spoke about what Draco didn't want to think about that's what. Of course he didn't want to think about how extremely sensitive the entire situation truly was, or that he was even starting to develop feelings for the girl. But he had no idea of that either. He'd met many other attractive girls and they hadn't gotten any of his attention. And they had even held him up on a pedestal the moment they met him and treated him like a god. But this girl, she didn't hold him up on a pedestal or treat him like a god, but she didn't completely ignore him either, or express hate or disgust, like the other half of the girls that weren't obsessed with him. There was never an in between but now there was. She was not obsessed with him, nor did she hate him. She treated him like a normal human being, like a friend. But he was beginning to want to be more than just a friend and in order to get to that point he knew he had to be even more careful and choose his steps wisely.

He had never actually had to work to get a girl to like him before, but he was going to try.

Samantha had fallen fast asleep again not long after Draco had left. She had many dreams of her brother and ways that you-know-who could've killed him. She'd toss and turn and wake up after an hour before falling back asleep to have another nightmare about her brother. Eventually she decided she'd just try and stay up for a little while. She sat up steadily and waited for her dizziness to wear off. She grabbed a piece of toast that was on the plate of food Draco left for her and started walking around his room looking at his things. She didn't consider it snooping, she wasn't opening drawers and looking for anything, she was just looking at what was already visible. She was surprised when only two photos were framed on his dresser. No more. One was a picture of a little blond boy and he looked like the happiest kid in the world. His grey eyes sparkled and his blond hair was messy and everywhere. He was being held by a woman with blond and black hair, the bottom half of her hair was dyed black and she smiled gently at the ecstatic little boy. And next to her a man with blond hair as well, pulled back in a pony-tail with a black ribbon. He held a pinwheel in front of the boy and he had the smile of a proud father. The other was a picture of the same Man and Woman only they looked a bit older, more tired, and the boy was much older. His stumpy child body grew and stretched into the body of a lean, good-looking 17 year old boy, his hair had grown a bit longer but his eyes stayed the same but were a little less bright in this picture. All three had stoic faces and looked at the camera intently. The man and woman each had one hand on each of the boy's shoulders but there was absolutely no emotion in either of their faces. The boy however, looked somewhat sad.

Draco finished with his classes for the day; he didn't have many, only three. He made his way to the Gryffindor common room and got there just in time to see Potter, Weasley, and Granger saying the password. He jogged up to them and squeezed in right behind them as the painting started to swing closed. The Fat Lady suddenly started to scream, "INTRUDER! SLYRHTERIN! INTRUDER!" She howled over and over again. The three spun around and came face to face with Draco Malfoy.

"What are you doing here?" Harry asked angrily.

"I'm only here for some of Sam's things. Granger can you get her schoolbooks and some of her clothes?" Hermione looked baffled.

"Why would I give you her stuff?" She was completely shocked.

"Get out! You're a Slytherin! You're not allowed in here!" Ron barked.

Draco rolled his eyes. He was about to speak when the Fat Lady started screaming something different. "MCGONAGALL IS ON HER WAY! SHE'S COMING!" (A/N: I don't know if I spelt her name right.)

"Would you just go get her shit?" Draco growled. More Gryffindor students started to come down from the dormitories and into the common room. He was starting to wonder if this was even worth it.

Just then the painting swung open again and Professor McGonagall strolled in. "What on Earth is going on here?" She looked at the four and suddenly realized that Malfoy was in the Gryffindor common room. "So this is what all the fuss is about? Ms. Granger he is within his rights coming here asking for her things."

"How did you…?" Harry started.

"Because I know where Ms. Thomas is and I know that she is the only reason why he would come here. Now Mr. Malfoy you probably could've handled this a lot better but please be patient. Ms. Granger if you wouldn't mind?" Draco crossed his arms over his chest and glared at her while Hermione ran up the stairs to get Sam's things.

"Professor McGonagall, where IS she anyways?" Harry asked.

"Yeah, is she alright?" Ron added.

"If she is not then she will be. You do not need to know exactly where she is, just know she's still here at Hogwarts but she is where she will get plenty of privacy and time alone to relax and mull things over. She is perfectly comfortable and safe." The two boys nodded and Draco released his glare but kept his arms crossed stubbornly. Just then Hermione came down with a backpack and another side bag.

"One has her books and the other has her clothes and other necessities." Hermione begrudgingly handed over the bags. She wasn't used to Draco trying to be helpful and was still convinced that she was betraying her friend by giving him her things. She felt like she was helping the enemy.

"Thank you Ms. Granger." McGonagall turned to leave and Draco decided to give the three a slight bow before he turned to leave behind her.

They looked at each other curiously as the head of blond hair disappear out the portrait hole.

The Fat Lady looked completely offended by his intrusion when McGonagall and Draco exited. "Did he taint anything Madam? If he did I swear I'll-"

"You'll do what?" Draco challenged. The Fat Lady looked down at him infuriated because she knew she really couldn't do anything. "And don't worry I made sure to get my Slytherin spit all over everything in that common room!"

"My lady! Do you hear this? Punish him! Give him detention! Expel him! I demand to see some punishment! He tainted them all with his Slytherin presence! He trespassed!" She insisted, nearly screaming.

"That's enough, Fat Lady! He had a perfectly good reason for coming here! I don't want to hear another word of it so stop your bickering immediately!" McGonagall commanded. The Fat Lady shut right up and glared at Malfoy's smug demeanor as they walked away.

Sam continued to look around the room. She looked at all of his books he had neatly arranged on his book case and began to get bored. Then her eyes spotter his closet door and she started to get extremely curious. She wondered if he had anything interesting 'hidden in his closet'. She opened the door and was officially considered snooping. His clothes were neatly hung and pushed to one side of the closet and the top shelf held more books and notepads and other various supplies. The floor of his closet had all of his potions equipment along with a few extra pairs of shoes but on the inside of his closet door, she saw a little pinwheel taped to the door. She recognized it as the one she saw in the picture. She was staring at it when-

"What the HELL are you doing?" Draco snarled.

She jumped back, startled. "I-I was just-"

"Snooping through my stuff!" He snapped at her.

"I didn't mean-" She tried to talk but he kept cutting her off.

"I would've thought YOU would know the meaning of the word PRIVATE!" He slammed the closet door shut.

"You never told me I couldn't!"

"Normally it's assumed that when you're in someone else's room, you don't go through their shit because it's THEIRS! Which means it's not YOURS!"

"You did the same thing to me!"

"What the hell are you talking about? I never snooped through your room!"

"No, but you tried to go through my sketchbook!"

"That's not nearly the same thing!"

"Yes it is! It's MINE not YOURS yet you still took it upon yourself to open it! If I hadn't of taken it away you would have gone through it! Now we're even!"

"Not even close!" He snarled back.

"What is it you don't want me to see? What is it you don't want me to know? From what I can see, there's damn near nothing in your room!" She glared hard at him.

"What didn't you want to see in your sketchbook?" He tried to corner her.

"Sketches! That's usually what's IN SKETCHBOOKS! That's how they got their name!"

"No shit Sherlock! What were they sketches OF?"

She straightened. "You want me to open up to you but you won't even open up to me." His glare lightened as he realized he was the one who had been cornered. Her eyes began to tear up and she grabbed the two bags he had brought in for her and started to leave before turning around to say, in a sarcastically sweet voice, "Oh, and thank you for the hospitality." She ran down the stairs and as multiple Slytherins in the common room turned and stared at her like she had five heads, she continued lie there was nothing odd about the situation and left the common room.

Draco was left in utter shock. He was still infuriated about her going through his stuff and she should've known to respect his privacy! It seemed like only common sense to him. But as he thought more, she was right, he had done the same thing to her. "Two wrongs don't make a right." He mumbled to himself. And he thought more about the last thing she said, how could he expect to know her inside and out when she didn't even know him. He really had no right to try and butt himself into her business. To her, he must still be a stranger. He sighed and fell back on his bed. This was going to be harder than he thought.

Hermione, Ron, and Harry were sitting on the couch in the Gryffindor common room. Hermione was reading and Ron was playing Harry in a game of wizard's chess. Suddenly the portrait hole swung open and a fuming Sam stormed in and nearly ran up the stairs to the girl's dormitories. The three looked at each other before Hermione darted up after her and Harry and Ron sat anxiously on the couch, completely forgetting about their game. Hermione walked in to see her curled up in her bed, silently crying. Hermione sat down on her bed. "What happened?"

Sam just looked at her then at the window. "You were right about Malfoy."

"What'd he do?" Hermione wasn't surprised at all to find out that it was Malfoy's fault but there were a number of different things he could've done. She hoped for the best but expected the worst. Sam walked her through the argument they had and Hermione was relieved that it wasn't as bad as she had originally thought but Malfoy was still an ass. "Do you want some space or do you want to talk about it?"

Sam stayed silent for a moment before replying, "I'd like some space, please." She was still mourning the loss of her brother, obviously, and now the addition of that argument just overwhelmed her. All she wanted to do was sleep the rest of the day away and try to forget about Draco. Hermione nodded and left the room. When she went down stairs she was just about jumped by Harry and Ron with questions about what was wrong.

"It was Malfoy." Was all she said before they both began to turn and try and leave the common room. Hermione grabbed each of their arms. "I don't think so! You are not going to go find him! Just leave it be, she's a big girl, she can take care of herself. We need to be more concerned with her and how she's doing rather than that prat." Harry and Ron glared at her.

"But it's not right! Why would he do something to piss her off when she's obviously already upset! He should've let her paint on the walls if that's what she wanted to do!" Harry argued.

"I don't care! It's done! It happened! You won't accomplish anything by hunting down Malfoy! You're just going to get yourselves in trouble!" Hermione let go of them and they went to sit back down on the couch. She joined them and told them what had happened that upset her so much and it just made them more irritated.

"He didn't have to be that cruel about it!" Ron snapped.

Hermione tuned them out as they ranted back and forth about how much they hated Malfoy. She only cared if they tried to leave.

+END CHAPTER 4+


	5. Chapter 5

**Thank you Jazzy17 for my first review! I was encouraged to begin the next chapter immediately after I read it! And thank you for a few others adding this story to their favorites/watch list! It means a lot! :D**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or its affiliated characters! (But oh how I wish. :P)**

+Chapter 5+

Draco was unsure of what to do next. It had been days since Samantha had attended class and he hadn't even seen her in the dining hall so he wasn't even sure if she was eating! All he wanted to do was find her and try and get himself out of the doghouse but he was still upset with her for going through his things considering she managed to stumble upon one of the few things in his room that he actually wanted to be private. When dinner ended, and he saw Harry, Hermione, and Ron leaving the great hall, Draco jumped up and slipped out the door after them. When they were clear of the crowd of people exiting, he stopped them. "Oi! Potter!" All three turned their heads hearing Harry's name.

Harry glared deeply at him, Ron mimicking him. "What the hell do you want now Malfoy?"

Draco sensed the hostility in the two boys immediately and turned to the girl. "Granger, how's Thomas?" He wasn't quite sure if he should call her by her first name or last name but considering the situation, he was probably safer with her last name.

"Wouldn't you like to know!" Ron spat.

"Yes, actually I would." Draco glared back.

Hermione sighed. "We wouldn't know."

Draco was immediately alert to what Granger was saying. "And why is that?"

"Because she's no longer on school grounds. She left to go see her father." Hermione said truthfully. This still made Draco nervous.

"Hermione! Why would you tell him that after what happened?" Harry hissed at her.

"Because, he has every right to know. He may have messed up, but Dumbledore asked him to look after her too. He should at least be kept up to date." Hermione rolled her eyes. Boys got so worked up when it wasn't necessary.

Draco ignored Harry completely. "When will she be back?"

"We are expecting her back within the next week. We don't know exactly what day, but it'll be soon." Harry and Ron turned and walked away, irritated with how easily Hermione forfeited information like that to him.

"Thank you, Hermione." He gave her a slight bow without looking at her face and walked away. He didn't want to see her reaction to him using her first name but he felt indebted to her. He now knew he had at least a few days to think over how he would approach Sam next and he could only hope she would be doing much better when she returned to Hogwarts.

A week had passed and Samantha nervously walked up to the front door of the castle that was Hogwarts. The trip home had proved extremely beneficial to getting over her brother. Of course it would be a while before she was okay with it but at least now she looked like she was back to her old self and felt like she was back to her old self… she just had random little breakdowns at times in which case she would usually go take a nap or draw. She had mixed emotions about returning to Hogwarts. In some aspects, she was excited and in others, she was nervous like it was her first day all over again. She entered the castle and luckily there weren't any people there to witness her return, of course it was getting late. Now that she began to think about it… '_I think it's past curfew… I should be careful about going back to my common room.' _She hiked her backpack up and began to ascend the stairs.

+  
>Draco was stuck doing his rounds yet AGAIN. One of the other prefects had gotten sick and was unable to do his rounds so Draco was forced to cover for him for the night. In the back of his mind he hoped he would hear a certain someone singing again but he knew she wasn't back yet and had probably learned her lesson the first time. He huffed and dragged himself around the corridors of Hogwarts.<br>+

Sam kept her footsteps as quiet as possible and forced her eyes to adjust to the darkness so she wouldn't give herself away with her wand light. She also knew that there was no way she would be singing… She walked at a brisk pace but was extremely alert to every little sound. Every so often she would get the feeling that she was being followed and stop and turn around to check. She was getting more and more, antsy to get back to safety of the common room. Something didn't feel quite right.

Draco had taken a seat on one of the benches in a main corridor and happened to look towards one end when a black figure seemed to drift past the end of the hall. He immediately perked up and the hair on the back of his neck stood on end. He kept his footsteps light and quick and jogged down the hall in the direction of the figure. He stopped and peaked around the corner and saw it continuing down the hall. It seemed to know where it was going and didn't seem to be looking for anything which made him less suspicious that it was a strange creature. He started following it, a little quieter than he had been when he was running. He wanted to see where it was going when suddenly a blood curdling scream ripped through the corridors. The figure froze before it disappeared in a cloud of black smoke. '_It was a distraction? But from what? And where did I see that smoke before?'_ The scream sounded again like an alarm and he took off in a mad dash towards the shrill sound. He thought while he ran when it suddenly hit him, '_Death-eaters.'_ His blood ran cold and everything seemed to drop into the pit of his stomach. He felt like he was going to be sick but simply sped up. When he heard the scream a third time he thought he was going to scream back at the source just to let them know help was on the way. He finally broke into the courtyard and saw a crumpled form of a student in the air, a girl. Her backpack lay on the ground and someone held her in the air with a curse.

"_CRUCIO!"_ The man screamed at her and another scream rippled through the courtyard.

Draco took aim, "Expelliamus!" (A/N: Not sure if that was spelt right :P)The death-eater's wand flew from his hand and the masked man stared straight at him. Draco did his best to ignore him because the girl began to drop. "Wingardium-Leviosa!" He caught her mid-fall and lowered her to the ground gently. As Draco turned to the death-eater, though, the man had already picked his wand back up but just disaparated with a final swear word. Once he was sure the coast was clear, Draco rushed to the girl and realized, with horror, who was crumpled on the ground. "Sam! Sam are you okay?"

A deep, wrenching anger overtook Draco but there was no one to release it on so all he could do was take a couple deep breaths, and focus on making sure she was okay. She was breathing, albeit heavy, and tears were streaming down her face. Her body was posed very awkwardly but he was afraid to try and move her just yet but he finally decided that she NEEDED to get to the hospital wing immediately. He scooped her up as gently as possible and began running as fast as he could, carrying her, towards the hospital wing.

Upon reaching said wing, the lights were all off in 's office but he didn't hesitate to set her down in an empty bed. He ran up to her office door and just as he was about to begin pounding on it, he noticed a note that said; "_In case of emergency, press button." _ Draco looked to the left of the door and saw what looked like a doorbell. He felt the need to press it repeatedly, and so that's what he did. He continued to press it until she showed up, less than a minute after he first pressed it.

"You can stop with that now! I'm here! What is the matter?" Draco nearly jumped out of his skin but he just pointed to the girl moaning in pain on the closest hospital bed. Mrs. Pomfrey gasped and ran to her. "What on Earth happened to her Mr. Malfoy?"

"I was making my rounds when I heard a scream… more than once and a ran after it. When I got to her she was being held in the air by the Crucio curse by a… death eater." It made his mouth dry just to say it, especially considering his parents were very adamant death eaters, he just hoped it wasn't one of them he saw.

He watched nervously as the nurse sent out two notes by owl, one to McGonagall and the other to Dumbledore. She continued to rush around the girl checking for any signs of physical wounds. Finding none, she gave her a quick shot of some pain killers to allow her body to finally relax. "Well, it seems that was the only curse used on her. I don't see any effects from any other curses so all we can do is let her body relax and heal itself. Most people don't know, but the truth is, this curse causes a lot of damage. It has to cause pain somehow, pain can't just come out of thin air. If it doesn't do damage the brain won't perceive it as pain, it'll perceive it as something, maybe pain, but it wouldn't be nearly as intense and there's no guarantee that it wouldn't just tickle instead. So what the curse does is it stretches muscle fibers to the point where they start to tear. If you've ever tried to stretch before physical exercise and began to feel it hurting, you know you're supposed to stop and hold the stretch once it begins to hurt a little because that's when you are actually stretching your muscle, but image being forced all the way through that pain to do a complete splits even if you've never done one before, except every muscle in your body is being stretched to that point, muscles you didn't even know existed."

Everything seemed to sink into the pit of his stomach again. He couldn't even begin to imagine how that would feel. "So what can you do?"

"Well, I will do my best to reconnect a majority of the muscle fibers with magic but for the most part, she has to heal herself." Draco nodded and watched as the witch waved her wand over Sam and mumbled many different spells and charms under her breath. Her eyes were open and alert and Draco could actually see some of her muscles twitching and moving very slightly. After a minute or so she stopped and fetched a potion from her storage room and gave her a small dose. Sam quickly fell asleep. "She'll be asleep for a while but she'll be fine and make a full recovery. She just needs a lot of rest so her muscles can repair themselves." Draco nodded and his knee bobbed up and down as he sat in a chair next to her bed. McGonagall and Dumbledore had just entered and quickly rushed over to Samantha's hospital bed.

"You say she was attacked by a death eater?" McGonagall gasped out.

Draco nodded. "I saw him. Well not his face… he had a mask on."

"You're sure the person was male though?" Dumbledore asked earnestly.

"Well it sounded like a man's voice." Both looked at him curiously. "I didn't speak to him… I heard him yell the Cruciatus curse…"

Dumbledore turned to McGonagall, satisfied. "Alert all the professors, and find Harry Potter. I want him under close watch for his safety as long as her." McGonagall nodded and rushed off.

"So now what?" Draco asked anxiously. "What do we do?"

"Well we really can't do much of anything Mr. Malfoy. All we can do is raise our guard and keep a close eye out for anything suspicious." When he was satisfied that Samantha's condition was well under control and there was nothing he could do in the hospital wing, he decided upon something else to do. "I will put up protective charms around the castle grounds, we could either trap him in with us or trap him out so unless I say otherwise, I want everyone on their highest alert. Draco, notify the rest of the prefects, organize a meeting. Pomfrey, keep a close eye on her." Draco nodded and left reluctantly and Dumbledore headed out to set up protection for the school.

+END CHAPTER 5+

**I know this chapter isn't as long as the others but I didn't want to move much farther without starting a new chapter. Well, let me know what you think! R&R please!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Hey all! I'm happy that I've gotten a couple more reviews and people are enjoying my story! I was starting to wonder because it seemed to take a while before I got any feedback but now I'm really excited to keep writing! Thank you for your encouragement! It's greatly appreciated!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter! **

+Chapter 6+

Draco waited impatiently in the great hall for the rest of the prefects to meet him. He had used a special charm to talk to them through his wand, almost like a walky-talky, in order to call them all to one place. It didn't take long before they all gathered, breathless. Of course Granger was part of the crowd and she especially looked like she were about to freak out considering she was just rudely awoken by professors dragging Harry off to a safer spot for the time being. "What the HELL is going on Malfoy?" She snapped at him. She was extremely frustrated because no one would tell her what was going on.

"There's been an intruder." Everyone perked up and looked at him curiously. "A death eater has broken into the school and attacked a student. We must all be aware and patrol the halls. The headmaster is putting up protective barriers around the school and the rest of the professors are assembling and doing their own patrols. The School is on High Alert until we can verify that the Death Eater is either Taken into custody or is absent of the school grounds." Everyone looked at each other and began whispering nervously. He glared at all of them, "What are you doing standing around? Split up into partners and start patrolling." They scrambled to find partners and before Draco could walk up to Zabini to be partners with him, Granger stepped in his way. "What do you want now Granger?"

"I'm your partner." The way she said it left no room for argument. He was about to protest when she started pushing him towards the exit of the great hall, earning strange looks from everyone. 

"Granger! What do you think you're doing?" He hissed as he tried to resist being pushed out the door.

"Oh, shut it Malfoy! We need to talk!" He finally stopped resisting and just glared at her the entire time they walked.

"What on Earth could you possibly want to know?" He grumbled.

"What is going on?" She practically screeched.

"I told you!"

"No you didn't! Who was attacked?"

Draco sighed. "It was Samantha."

Hermione froze. "But she didn't come back yet..."

"Until tonight."

"Is she okay?"

"She will be. Now can we just do our rounds now?" He started to walk a little faster but she caught right up to him and kept his pace easily.

"No! Who was it? The death eater!"

"How would I know? He was wearing a mask!" He was getting extremely irritated now.

"Well I just thought…"

"Thought what, Granger? That just because it's well known now that my father and mother are death eaters, that I would know who everyone is? Thanks Granger, nice to know I'm being grouped in with them." Draco glared at her just as he saw Zabini and some girl from Hufflepuff walking in their direction. "Zabini! You're my partner! Granger, go with her." She just stared at him gape-mouthed as Zabini shrugged and sped up to walk with Draco while the other girl just looked at them confused.

Hermione grabbed her by the arm and stormed off in the opposite direction. Zabini didn't ask anything, he just waited for Draco to start bitching about having to patrol even longer now or something of the sort but he never did. In fact, Draco looked flat out determined to find the death eater. There were two reasons that he really wanted to find him; One was that he wanted to beat the living shit out of him for what he did to Sam, and two was that he wanted to assure himself that it wasn't his father… but he couldn't be so sure… what other death eater would refuse to fight Draco just because he disarmed him and run? Any other death eater would've quickly retrieved their wand and killed him. So he was fairly sure it was his father but he hoped he was wrong.

The sun was just starting to rise when a voice spoke through the halls of the school and hung in the air outside the building. "_All prefects and Professors are to report to the great hall, immediately."_ It repeated itself a couple times before silence took over the school once more. By this time Zabini and Draco were practically running to the great hall, eager to find out what had happened. When they got there, they noticed that they were about the last ones to show up. Dumbledore silenced everyone and called order. "We have concluded that the death eater is no longer on school grounds. The barriers and protective charms will remain until I see fit. Classes will be cancelled for this coming day and I want everyone to try and relax. We have used our most extensive searching spells and charms to check the school's many secret passageways and hidden rooms and have come up with nothing unusual. Everyone is to report back to their dormitories and inform the rest of the students what has happened so they are aware. All meals and other scheduled events will proceed as planned. That is all, thank you." Dumbledore retreated out the back door of the dining hall and everyone began to file out the main entrance. Draco was relieved and frustrated because he had wanted to know who it was but there was nothing he could do about it now. Even if he asked his father, he knew he wouldn't receive the truth if it really was him. He decided to pay the hospital wing a visit before he went back to the Slytherin Common Room. When he walked in, he wasn't surprised to see that she was out cold but she was covered up with a thick blanket and looked fairly comfortable and peaceful as she slept. This relieved him even more and left the hospital wing, satisfied that she would be alright. When he got back to his common room he immediately went to sleep and let Zabini explain the night's happenings to the rest of the Slytherins. Draco proceeded to sleep a majority of the day and only woke up for dinner. By the time dinner was over, he was ready to go back to bed and that's exactly what he did and slept until the next morning.

The next day Zabini and Pansy were sitting in the middle of the Slytherin common room. Pansy was asking dumb questions about what had happened with the death eater. "Did my Drakey-poo beat that bad man up? He should've let him kill that dumb girl first! I mean she's just a Gryffindor so it doesn't really matter! I bet if it were me being attacked, Draco would've completely destroyed that death eater! But at the same time I think the death eater would think I was too pretty to kill." She said smugly. Zabini rolled his eyes. He wasn't exactly sure why he was even still sitting with her.

"No, I'm pretty sure I would turn a blind eye and let him kill you." Draco said coming down his staircase and heading for the exit of the common room. Zabini jumped a little, surprised at his sudden entrance.

"Oh, you're so funny Drakey-poo!" she giggled goofily at him. "I can't wait until we get married someday and have kids! We're going to have the best life in the world and every girl is going to be jealous of me!"

Draco sighed and halted, turning to Pansy. He knew he was about to get very mean but he couldn't stand Pansy talking like that anymore. "No, Pansy, no girl will ever be jealous of you because we will NEVER get married! And I would never even consider having a family with you! You trying to be a mom would be like trying to make a fish walk on dry land!" Every word dripped venom and seriousness.

She didn't giggle this time. Tears started to well up in her eyes and she had a horrified expression on her face. "How could you say that Draco? We've been planning this ever since first year!"

"No, WE haven't planned anything! YOU did! But it's about time you got a reality check because I'm only going to say this once! IT WILL NEVER HAPPEN!" He practically screamed all of his frustrations at her before turning around and storming out of the common room and to his class. She broke out into hysterical sobs and just as Zabini tried to sneak away from her, she grabbed his robes and started wiping her tears and nose off on him, pounding on his chest and screaming obscene things. He thought he was going to start crying himself. He knew he was going to have to burn these robes when she was done.

Draco was furious with Pansy's stupidity and obliviousness. He had intended to go to his potion's class when he found himself at the entrance to the hospital wing. He hadn't intended to end up here, he didn't know how he ended up here. He looked at the front door of the hospital wing and sighed, pushing it open and walking in. He approached her bed slowly and was nearly knocked on his ass when he saw that her eyes were open. She looked over at him and paused before giving him a small smile and every ounce of anger he had had walking in just melted into a puddle at his feet. He just stood there looking at her. Her face turned a little red. "You can sit down you know." She said nervously, pointing to the chair next to her bed.

He nodded and made his way over to the chair, sitting down. "How are you feeling?" He finally asked.

She shrugged. "Every one of my muscles is really sore. But it's not terrible. I think I'll live." She said with a smile.

He nodded. "That's really good." He had an overwhelming sense of relief but at the same time he was still unsure if she was still upset with him or not.

"Mrs. Pomfrey told me what you did." She said quietly.

He looked up at her. "What'd I do?" He asked nervously. Had he done something wrong he didn't even KNOW about?

She giggled a little bit. "You saved my life."

He relaxed when he realized what she was talking about and he sat up straight in his chair. "Well, I mean, I really didn't do much."

"Oh, bull. You know as well as I do, that if you hadn't found me and stopped him, he would've killed me." He didn't argue he just scratched the back of his head and looked at the ground. "What's wrong?"

Draco sighed. "Are you still upset about what happened?" Why did he care so much? He had just bitched out Pansy and verified her worst nightmare and made her cry and he didn't care about that! Why did he care if she was a little mad at him when she had actually done something wrong? Why was this eating away at him so much?

She looked a little shocked. "To be honest, I forgot all about that." She looked thoughtful for a minute. "No I'm not mad. But I am sorry for going through your stuff. You were being kind enough to loan me your room to try and give me privacy and I just shoved it all in your face."

He sighed. This just made him feel worse! Why did she have to apologize and be so nice? He actually felt even more guilty than he did if it was even possible! "Don't. Don't apologize. Please." He held his head in his hands. He was so confused!

She looked baffled. "Well then what do you want me to say?" she looked even more confused than him, and slightly hurt. He didn't accept her apology?

"Just say you aren't mad at me anymore! Don't apologize! Just forgive me! I fucked up! I shouldn't have yelled at you like that!"

"But, I was invading your privacy. I was-"

"Yes, but I didn't have to yell! You only yelled at me for opening your sketchbook because you were already upset that I was peaking over your shoulder and scared you have to death! You did nothing to warrant that reaction from me and you didn't deserve it!" His fist banged the side table next to her bed that held her medications and she jumped a little.

"Oh, would you stop!" He looked up at her a little shocked. "You opened my sketchbook, I snooped, we yelled at each other. Big deal! It's in the past, it happened! There's nothing we can do about it now! We've come to the conclusion that I'm not mad at you and I'm sorry for going through your things and from what I can tell, you're not mad at me and you're sorry for going through my things! Can we please just call this done?" She yelled in exaggeration. Draco just looked at her for a moment before he nodded. She sighed and was about to say something else when suddenly, she felt a pair of warm, soft, lips pressed gently to hers. She blinked a couple times but didn't pull back. He had his eyes closed but began to pull back.

He opened his eyes then shook his head slightly. "I'm sorr-"

She interrupted him. "Don't you DARE apologize for that." Then she closed her eyes and kissed him instead. He relaxed and kissed her back, one of his hands cupping her cheek. It felt like the most right thing in the world to kiss her.

had begun to walk towards Samantha's bed to check on her but saw the two and made the careful decision to turn a blind eye to it and walk away.

He was the one to pull back first. She looked at him curiously. "I want to talk to you." He stated.

She shrugged. "So talk."

He sighed. "I don't know what to talk to you about though." He admitted.

"What do you mean?"

"I want you to ask me something, anything, about me. Something you want to know about me."

She realized what he was trying to do and relaxed and thought. "What's your relationship like with your father?"

He sighed, expecting a question like this. He sat back and thought for a moment. "Well, when I was young, he used to be my best friend. He would tell me every day that he was so proud to be my father and that he imagined me doing big things with my life. We got along great and he was my favorite person in the world. We would travel all over the world, and he would show me all the biggest wizarding cities in all of the different countries. He took me everywhere and wanted me to experience everything. He said he wanted me to have what he never got as a kid. I was his right-hand man and he used to tell me everything. I loved hearing about what he did at work, it was the highlight of my day. Then as I began to get older, he started pushing me away. He would say I didn't work hard enough. I didn't do enough. I wasn't good enough. I wouldn't get anywhere in life. He stopped talking to me about his work. He stopped taking me places. He only took me places if my mother begged him to which wasn't often. I wouldn't be surprised if he even rejects me as his son to some of his coworkers. All I want to do is please him. I want him to be proud of me again. I want him to want to tell everyone he sees that I'm his son. All I want out of him is his acceptance." The entire time he said this he looked down at the floor. "All of the memories I have of him and I traveling and spending all those nights talking, are cherished. I still hope one day he might come around but I'm starting to lose hope."

She sighed. He was opening up to her. "You'll get it." He looked up at her. Was that all she was going to say to that?

"What do you mean?" He egged her to say more. He's never even opened up like this to Zabini, he was going to get more than 'you'll get it'.

"Well, In my opinion, it sounds like he doesn't want you to want his acceptance."

Now he was confused. "How do you figure?"

"Well, he does. Just not in this way. It sounds like he wanted you to grow up to be your own person, to develop your own goals, your own dreams. I think the day he tells you he's proud of you, will be the day you start yourself off on your own path. He sounds like he's disappointed because you're trying so hard to be what he would want you to be, to be him, not what you want to be." She watched his reaction carefully.

He thought about what she said. Why hadn't he ever thought of that? But now that he thought of it, it only made perfect sense. He would be angry whenever he asked him about work or seemed interested in him or what he was doing. And hey, even if she was wrong, it could be worth a shot, couldn't it?

"Can I ask you something?" He said casually, not looking at her.

"Sure."

He looked back up to her. "Can I see your sketchbook?"

+END CHAPTER 6+

**I think it's really starting to unfold into something good. I want to hear your thoughts!**

**R&R!**


	7. Chapter 7

**Hey welcome back! I'm starting to get really addicted to writing this and I've got a lot of different ideas! I'm not exactly sure which direction this will go in yet but I'm sure I'll be able to pull out something good! Please keep reading and review! Thanks!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter!**

+CHAPTER 7+

She sat up straight and looked away from him. She was thinking about it. She sighed and reached under her bed to pull out her backpack. She paused again before unzipping it and sliding out the same black book Draco had tried to look through in the courtyard. She sighed, "Just don't make fun of them." She handed it over to him quickly and looked away, waiting for him to finish going through it.

He took it but looked at her curiously. "Why would I make fun of them?" She ignored him and continued to look towards the opposite side of the room. He sighed and opened the book. As he flipped through the sketches, each one seemed to be better than the last. Some he could tell were just random sketches like what she was doing in the courtyard and others she could tell actually held emotion. There was a picture of a woman sprawled out across the floor with her eyes wide open. She seemed to be staring right at Draco and there was blood running from her eyes and nose and mouth and she looked very battered and messy. Another had a picture of two men, throwing punch at each other. One was obviously losing and he was actually crying. He seemed to be screaming something at the obviously older man who seemed to be preparing to grab the boy. There was another of a man that held a woman by the throat off the ground. They seemed to get more and more graphic. One of the last ones was a picture of a man stretched out on a gurney. His foot stuck out from under the sheet and it had a tag tied to his toe. His face was also uncovered and it looked like it had been severely beaten and his eyes were wide open. Then he came to the last one which was a picture of… himself. He had a hand outstretched like he was going to help someone up or like he was urging someone to take it. He was a little surprised by this. He looked back up at her and she was looking at him, her face beat red.

"They're my dreams." She explained. "You ever have a dream that seemed so real that for the rest of the day you just feel weird? The dream is all you can think about? Whenever I have dreams like that, which is quite often, I draw what I remember the most from that dream and it helps to relieve the weird feeling. It's like a diary of sorts because a majority of those dreams are based off of actual memories. So that's why it's so personal. I have a lot of random sketches in there but I also have a lot of meaningful things in there too." He looked at the last picture one more time before shutting it and handing it back to her. He could now make very clear guesses as to what was going on in all of those pictures. "I've never actually shown anyone those before." She hugged the sketchbook close for a minute before she shoved it back in her backpack and zipped it up. She seemed to sigh in relief when it was out of sight again.

He sighed. "Well, aside from the fact a lot of them seem very sad, emotionally, you are a very skilled artist." He wasn't exactly sure what to say about the pictures.

She looked at him a little funny but relieved in a way. "Thank you."

"And it means a lot that you let me see them. If you don't mind me asking though, what's the story behind that picture of me?"

She seemed to play with her fingers for a minute. "I had a dream that I had tripped over something and fallen. But for some reason I couldn't get up. I had tried everything I could but I just couldn't get up no matter what I did, and when I finally got close to getting up my legs buckled and I fell back down. I just felt so weak and I started to cry. Then you walked up to me and held your hand out to me. In my dream, I didn't know who you were. I wasn't sure if I should trust you to help me up or not but I finally decided to take your hand. When I did, though, my weakness just seemed to flow off of me and you lifted me onto my feet as easily as I had fallen. But you didn't just let me go and walk away, you just stood there and held onto me. Then I woke up."

He looked down at the ground, as if he were thinking about it then stood up from his chair. She looked at him a little shocked. Was he leaving? Did she say something she shouldn't have? He didn't say anything but he bent over and kissed her lightly. It was brief but held a lot of emotion. When he pulled back he said, "I will always be there to help you up." He smiled down at her softly. He was surprised at himself even. He had never said anything cheese-y like that and he hadn't actually smiled in a long time. But this was also the first time in a long time that he actually began to feel happy. He turned to walk away.

"Wait!" She swung her legs over the bed and attempted to stand but her muscles were still incredibly sore and weak so she started to fall over but Draco was there in seconds and caught her.

"What are you doing? You know you're not ready to walk just yet! You're not even close to being healed enough!" But he didn't sit her down or let her go, he just stood there and held her.

She shrugged a little. "I-I don't know why I did that… why are you leaving."

He smirked down at her. "Because I'm already a half an hour late for class."

She nodded and let her knees buckle, signifying she was trying to sit and he let her. "I'll come back after dinner. I promise." She smiled at him. And he bent down to kiss her one more time before he finally left.

Unknowingly to them, Pansy was led down to the hospital wing shortly after Draco had arrived there because her friends were concerned about her because she had begun to throw up. But her friends had left before Pansy actually talked to the nurse and when Pansy heard Draco's voice she hid behind the curtains of one of the hospital beds. She heard everything that they said, including Draco's confession about his father and the dream Sam described to him. How could that bitch try and steal Draco away from her? Pansy was NOT about to let this happen! She would get her Draco back and Sam would be out of the picture!

Draco was antsy all through his last class. Snape had practically ripped him a new asshole when he showed up a half an hour late and he was glad to get out of that class quickly enough, although he DID get detention. He didn't really care though. He sat through his charms class, giving pitiful attempts at trying out the charm that Professor Flitwick was trying to teach them. Hermione couldn't help but notice that he seemed very distracted. She eyed him carefully but all he did was bob his knee and flick his wand impatiently. She sighed and Flitwick dismissed class. Draco all but ran out of the room. Ron looked at Harry and Hermione. "Bloody hell, did you see Malfoy take off?" Hermione nodded and Harry shook his head.

"Why, what's wrong with him?" Harry spat. He was beginning to hate Malfoy more than usual. And he wasn't even trying to make his life miserable anymore which he appreciated but he couldn't help but notice that Malfoy's attention was directed more towards Sam. He couldn't tell if it was good or bad just yet but either way he didn't like it. He wanted Malfoy to leave her alone completely.

"I don't know but what's wrong with you?" Ron countered.

"Nothing." He said, glaring at the door. "Can we leave and go to dinner now?"

Ron looked at him oddly. He knew Harry was lying and Hermione just sighed. "Yes, let's go."

The three made their way to dinner and sat down, eager for food. "So, did you ever find out who was the one that was attacked by the death eater the other night?" Ron asked Harry earnestly. They had all been told that a student was attacked but the identity of said student was a well-kept secret. The nurse had that bed completely isolated from the rest of the wing and only people that already knew the identity were allowed to visit. Not even Harry knew. Harry shook his head and continued eating. Ron looked at Hermione, implying that he had asked her too.

She looked like she were trying to hold up a box full of bricks before she finally spat it out. "It was Sam, she was the one that was attacked!" Harry started to choke on his food. And Ron stared blankly at her.

"You knew and you're just telling us this now?" Ron nearly howled. "Why would you keep something like this from us? Especially since she's our friend!" Ron pounded on Harry's back and he finally spit up his food.  
>"Who told you that it was Sam? She's supposed to be visiting her father!" Harry said warily.<p>

It looked as if Hermione's load hadn't been lightened, it had been doubled. "Malfoy told me." She admitted sheepishly.

"Since when do you talk to MALFOY?" Ron practically screamed. Every conversation suddenly silenced and everyone turned to look at the three. Hermione could feel Draco's glare burn the back of her head.

"Ron, shush! I'll explain later! Just sit down!"

"No! You'll explain NOW!" He boomed.

Harry just looked back and forth between the two. He was just as baffled as Ron but hated the attention he was attracting. Knowing she wasn't getting out of it, she tried to quickly and quietly, explain what had happened between her and Malfoy that night and how he told her. Both boys seemed as though someone had cracked a hammer over the top of their heads. Once Hermione repeated that Sam was the one that was attacked, whispers broke out in all directions and the news spread like wildfire. They heard a door swing open and a very angry Draco Malfoy had stormed out of the great hall. Harry got up and ran after him. Up at the long table for the professors, McGonagall and Snape began to stand but Dumbledore put a hand up to stop them. "Leave them be." He stated quietly. "We couldn't hope the news would stay secret forever."

Snape just sat down and glared at the table of Gryffindors while McGonagall looked at Dumbledore, stunned, before resulting on not arguing and continued to eat worriedly.

Sam had started to doze off when she heard the door to the hospital wing slam open. She jumped a little and immediately regretted it as pain shot up her back and legs. She winced and rolled over just in time for the curtains surrounding her bed to flutter open and allow the entrance of a very flustered blond. He shut the curtains and sat down next to her bed. He was visibly upset. "What's wrong? What happened?"

"Thanks to Granger, the whole school now knows that you were the student that was attacked!"  
>She looked at him, surprised. "How does she know?"<p>

He paused before he seemed to get even more upset. "I told her. It's a long story. But she should've known that Potter and Weasley would make a big deal out of it!" He grumbled before slouching back in his chair.

Sam sighed. "Look, it's not that big of a deal. It's the professors that wanted to keep my identity hidden, not me. I really couldn't care less. I mean, I know I'm going to be getting a lot of questions for a while but it's not that big of a deal." Draco sighed and started to lean in to kiss her but the curtains were ripped back and there stood a very angry Harry.

Draco just glared at him. "What do you want, Potter?" He spat. Harry didn't answer, he just walked up to Draco and dragged him out of the chair by his collar and tossed him to the ground away from her bed.

"Harry! What are you doing?" Sam shouted at him.

Harry ignored her and pulled out his wand, pointing it at Draco. "This is all YOUR fault!" He spat out.

Malfoy glared down the tip of Harry's wand, unfazed. "What's my fault? What are you talking about?"

"It's your fault she was attacked by a death eater!"

"Oh, really? How do you figure? Please tell me, because I'd really love to hear it, Potter!"

"You KNEW death eaters would probably be looking for her! I bet you just told your parents!"

Sam grabbed her wand from the side table and struggled to a standing position with a lot of pain and discomfort. She held herself up with the bed. She pointed her wand at Harry. "Expelliamus!" His wand flew from his hand and they both turned to look at her. Harry looked at her like she had just slapped him. "Why would death eaters be looking for me? And what do Draco's parents have to do with any of this?"

Harry looked at her baffled, then looked down at Draco. His already paleface looked like it was even paler. "Don't, Potter." Draco warned. But there was nothing behind it. Draco's eyes weren't a steal wall for once. They said everything. Sam had no idea that his parents were death eaters. Normally the only emotion you could see in Draco's eyes was anger, but now they reeked of fear.

"You didn't tell her, Malfoy?" Harry toyed.

"Tell me what?" Sam demanded. Her hand shook and her wand seemed to be dangling from her fingertips.

"Tell her, Malfoy!" Harry urged. "Tell her how you're parents are death eaters!" Draco kicked Harry's leg out from under him, and he toppled to the floor, smacking his head off the tile floor. Harry cursed and held the back of his head. Draco jumped up.

"I swear, I was going to tell you!" Draco scrambled for something to say.

She tried to back away from him slowly but she bumped into the side table and almost lost her footing. Tears were streaming down her face. "When? When were you going to tell me?" She challenged. He fumbled around for something to say when Harry finally stood back up.

"Oh, but that's not all he's kept from you!" Harry walked back over to Draco and grabbed his arm. He practically tore the sleeve off his left arm and forced it in front of her face. "Look! He's one of them too! Draco Malfoy is a death eater!" Draco didn't hesitate to punch Harry square in the face. He had wanted to do that for years but he didn't even get to enjoy it. Sam fully toppled over onto the ground. Her legs couldn't hold her anymore. Draco bent to help her up but she slapped his hands away from her.

"Don't you dare, touch me." She warned. Just then Dumbledore came in with McGonagall and Snape right behind him. Dumbledore hadn't thought that it would escalate to this. He merely expected Harry to want to see Sam and make sure she was okay. He didn't think that Harry was out to actually do some damage but Pomfrey had overheard them and ran to fetch him. Snape grabbed Draco by the collar of his shirt and dragged him away from the scene quickly, Draco struggling the entire time. Dumbledore pulled Harry up by his arm and walked past him. McGonagall took him and led him to a bed away from where Sam was. Dumbledore held a hand out for her and she took it. She was crying uncontrollably now but he just got her back into bed and sat down on his chair, waiting for her to calm down. "Take those two to my office." He said loudly. McGonagall held Harry's arm and Snape continued to drag Draco by his collar. The boys were led/dragged out of the hospital wing and towards Dumbledore's office.

Hermione and Ron had begun walking to the hospital wing. They had wanted to give Harry some time to see Sam. Neither thought that he wanted anything to do with Malfoy but were incredibly surprised when they saw Snape dragging Draco and McGonagall leading Harry past them and down the corridor. Harry didn't even glance at them but they knew he saw them. However Draco gave Hermione a look that could kill. Ron and Hermione looked at each other before breaking out into a sprint to get to the hospital wing even faster.

When Sam had finally managed to calm Hermione and Ron showed up. Dumbledore sighed, "You two cannot stay right now. You may visit with Ms. Thomas later, but for now, I need to talk to her alone." Hermione nodded and pulled Ron back out of the hospital wing. They decided to just sit outside of the wing and wait for Dumbledore to leave. "Ms. Thomas, there is a lot of explaining that needs to be done, and I will give you that explanation." Sam nodded and tried to sit a little straighter. Tears still fell here and there, she felt completely betrayed by Draco. She thought that he had tried to open up to her and after what she told him, she didn't think he was hiding something like that from her! She could understand him not wanting to tell him everything about himself just yet but considering the circumstances, she felt she deserved to know that him and his parents were death eaters! "To start, Mr. Malfoy's parents are indeed death eaters. However, they are being very carefully monitored. They cannot apparate any longer, the ministry has used a charm to prevent that. One that is impossible to remove unless the person who cast it revokes it. And they both have tracking devices so the ministry knows where they are at all times. I already looked into their locations as soon as the incident resided and through that entire night, they never left their home. It is impossible to fool tracking devices set by the ministry so I fully trust that that's where they were. As for Mr. Malfoy, I was fully aware that he had the mark of the death eater, but I can assure you, he is not a death eater. Two years ago, his parents began trying to induct them into being a follower and at the time he fully intended to follow in their footsteps but last year, there were a series of incidences that made him realize he didn't have any loyalty for the dark lord. He came to me, wanting to revoke his decision. To rid himself of the dark mark. He wanted to take it all back. But unfortunately, it is permanent. It will never go away or be able to be removed but I used my magic to block its connection with Voldemort. At first his parents were furious but as soon as the ministry got wind of the statuses of his parents, they were immediately restricted but after speaking with me about Mr. Malfoy, they decided not to apply the same actions against him, determining he was not a threat. I of course hold full responsibility of his actions. If he were to hurt someone in that sense, he would be punished to the fullest extent of the law and probably sent to Azkaban. But I assure you, that mark is nothing more than that, a mark. He has no loyalty to the dark lord." She nodded.

She was relieved but still had an incredible amount of anger towards him. She still felt she deserved to know considering she was just attacked by a death eater. "Well that clears that up for me, but why are death eaters looking for me in the first place?" She was still confused. 

Dumbledore explained the situation with her brother being a death eater and the true cause of her mother's death, very carefully. When he was done, her hands covered her face and she broke out into sobs. She had so much to think about now. He stood to leave. "Please realize, Ms. Thomas, you are surrounded by people who care deeply about you and you will be kept safe here. I know this is a lot for you to deal with, but know, everything will be alright." He put a hand on her shoulder for a second as if to reassure her before he turned and left. She let herself fall back on her bed as she continued to cry. Ms. Pomfrey rushed in and started to check her over to make sure she didn't injure herself.

"Can you make me sleep?" She gasped out between sobs.

"I'm sorry, I don't think that's-"

"Please?" Ms. Pomfrey looked down at her eyes and saw how upset she was. Not only was she incredibly hurt emotionally but she was still hurting physically. She sighed and poured a small amount of the sleeping potion for her and let her drink. She fell into a silent, peaceful sleep within seconds. Ms. Pomfrey sighed again and walked away from her bed with the potion in hand. Ron and Hermione had just entered when she stopped them. "Not now dears. She's asleep and she needs her rest. It's really not a good time. Feel free to check back in tomorrow though." She ushered them out and closed the door to the hospital wing. Hermione and Ron were surprised to be kicked out, it was rare that Pomfrey refused visitors. Something really bad must have happened to Sam.

+END CHAPTER 7+

**What'd you think? I've still got so much more I want to do with this! Please review!**


	8. Chapter 8

**Hey everybody! I know it's been a while since I've uploaded but there's been A LOT on my mind these past couple weeks. First I've had finals for college (I think I have a 4.0 GPA but that's beside the point), I found out my grandfather has cancer, I'm fostering a rabbit and a guinea pig which need almost constant cleaning, Christmas is coming up and I still haven't finished my shopping, and its nearing the one year mark of my dog's death. For those of you who haven't grown up with a dog I'm sorry you may not understand how upsetting that is, I'm going to school to be a veterinarian so I've got a huge heart for animals and I'm still not completely over her so it's been a rough year to say the least. I'm not typing all of this to complain, but to vent more or less. It feels good to get it out. Well that's my 'rant', now on to the chapter!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter **

+CHAPTER 8+

Dumbledore went straight to his office, where two professors and two students sat, waiting for him. Once the door shut behind him in his office, Dumbledore gave them both a look of deep disappointment. Draco simply ignored him and glared at the ground. He had more important things to worry about than how many days of detention he might get. Harry acknowledged him but pinpointed most of his attention into a deathly glare at Draco, willing him to burst into flames. Dumbledore took a seat at his desk. "First of all, Mr. Potter, I'd like to clear up some confusion for you about Mr. Malfoy and his parents." Harry's head shot up at Dumbledore, he was sure it was going to be Malfoy to be the one in trouble, how was this turning on him. "Mr. Potter, I know you only had the best intentions by trying to inform Ms. Thomas about Mr. Malfoy, but all you've done is upset her greatly and possibly slowed down her healing substantially because of it. You've done more harm than good. You've also injured the friendship between Mr. Malfoy and Ms. Thomas by doing this."

"Sir! She had every right to know!" Harry insisted. He couldn't believe he was the bad guy right now.

"Perhaps so, but it was not your place to tell her. You knew she didn't know the real reason behind her Mother's death and so she had no idea that her brother used to be a death eater nor that she was a very likely target for other death eaters. I was forced to inform her because of the confusion YOU wrought." Everything just seemed to drop into the pit of Harry's stomach as he realized this. He hadn't thought of that. "Also, I am well aware of what is going on with Mr. Malfoy and his parents. They are being very carefully observed, and restricted by the ministry. They're whereabouts are known at all times and they were at home, sleeping, when the incident occurred, proving their innocence. As for Mr. Malfoy, he revoked his choice to be a death eater long ago."

"Once a death eater, always a death eater." Harry spat, glaring Draco straight in the face.

Dumbledore sighed. "This is not true. Harry, I know of a few, not many, but a few men that have deeply regretted their decision to give the dark lord their faith, they had never done wrong, never hurt anyone, just claimed to give him their loyalty. Do those men really deserve to be punished especially after they risked their lives to seek help leaving him? Mr. Malfoy came to me last year, and asked for help and forgiveness. I gave it to him and he has rewarded me with nothing but honesty. I severed the connection between Voldemort and the dark mark, making him a target for death eaters as well. Betrayal does not bode well with Voldemort, as I'm sure you can understand, so when he went out of his way to ask for help, of course I would give it to him. Help will always be given, at Hogwarts, to those who ask for it." Dumbledore watched Harry carefully over the top of his half-moon spectacles. "Mr. Malfoy, you may leave. I must ask that you go straight to your dormitory and avoid the hospital wing for a few days. I talked to her to lessen the confusion but she will need some time to think it over." Draco nodded and stood abruptly to leave.

"You've got to be joking! He's not getting ANY sort of punishment?" Harry blurted.

Draco paused in his steps before turning and glaring at Harry. "A word of advice Potter, before you start pointing fingers, make sure your own hands are clean." (A/N: not my quote. Quoted from Bob Marley I believe.) Draco turned back around and left.

"Make sure MY hands are clean? What in BLOODY HELL did I do?" Harry got up to follow after him but Snape quickly grabbed his collar and swung him back around to face Dumbledore.

"You, Mr. Potter, accused a student of either conspiring to attack Ms. Thomas, or attacking her himself. Not only that, but you forced me hand in informing her of her mother and brother which is doing nothing but hurting her right now and hurting her healing process. You had absolutely no proof that the attack had anything to do with Mr. Malfoy or his family except that they have a history with Voldemort, making him an easy person to point a finger at. I sure hope that no other students got wind of this because I do not want to have to make an announcement about this at dinner. So if you've told anyone it was his fault, I suggest you tell them you're wrong."

Harry stiffened. "You do not have to have clean hands to know a black heart."

"Who says Mr. Malfoy's heart is black? From what I've seen, his is quite large, he is just confused as to who to give it to." Harry glared angrily before attempting to leave again but Snape stopped him. "You are not to leave yet, Mr. Potter. There's still the matter of your punishment." Harry's look of astonishment showed Dumbledore that he still didn't quite grasp what it is he did wrong. "You have falsely accused a student of committing a very serious crime, and in doing so have caused a great deal of pain to more than one person tonight. You will receive Detention every night for the next two weeks with Professor Snape starting tomorrow night. McGonagall, please walk him to the Gryffindor common room to ensure he goes nowhere else."

McGonagall nodded and ushered the furious Harry out of Dumbledore's office. Dumbledore sighed and looked up at Snape. "What a dilemma Severus."

When Draco left Dumbledore's office he was furious about the whole situation. He had done nothing wrong but was sure that he had lost Sam for good, thanks to Potter. He went out of his way to pass the hospital wing. He knew he couldn't go in but he tried to peek inside the entrance of the wing. He didn't expect to see anything, he was more or less hoping he wouldn't hear her crying and was glad he didn't. He only hoped she was sleeping and he continued off to the Slytherin common room.

When McGonagall finally left Harry in the Gryffindor common room, Harry immediately went up to the boys' dormitories and ignored Hermione and Ron. Ron tried to follow him up but Harry snapped at him saying he didn't want to talk about it.

About three days had passed before Draco had succumbed to going to the hospital wing. He was going mad, all he wanted to do was try and fix things with Sam. He walked in and snuck by Pomfrey who was busy attending to a couple of sick students. He knew he was allowed to be here but he still didn't want her breathing down his neck. He drew back the curtains surrounding her bed and was met with a pair of blue eyes, staring back at him. He closed the curtains behind him and nervously sat in the chair next to her bed. He was trying to read her facial expression but he couldn't make out whether she was sad or angry or just didn't even care that he was there. "Sam… I… we need to talk."

She glared at him and folded her arms over her chest. "No kidding."

He sighed. "Look, I know you're mad but-"

"Well, that's the understatement of the century."

"Dumbledore told you about me and my parents right?" She nodded. "Good, so you know I'm not a death eater. But if it makes you feel any better, the only people who knew for sure about the mark are my parents and Dumbledore. I wanted to tell you, but it wasn't the right time."

"Oh, that's just bullshit! You didn't want to tell me because you knew about my mom and brother! But you should've told me about that too! I thought I could trust you but you were hiding something this huge from me! What am I supposed to think, Draco? How am I supposed to trust you?"

"I'm sure you've put together that Harry, Hermione, and Ron, knew too right?"  
>She looked as if she were in deep thought. "I knew about Harry, but not Hermione and Ron."<p>

"Yeah, well now you know. Dumbledore told us because he wanted us to keep an eye on you because your brother died to make sure you were okay. To make sure you took it well and had people around. He didn't think I even knew you at the time."

"That's why you sent flowers that early…"

"Yes, and he also told us the truth behind your mother's death and your brother's past. So the four of us knew, he felt it was important we knew in case you were informed without him knowing it but he told us we weren't to tell you. We had no right to. That was between you and your father. I couldn't tell you about me and my parents without explaining why it mattered that you knew, in which case, I'd be betraying Dumbledore's trust."

Sam sighed and stayed silent for a minute while she thought this through. "It's going to take me some time to be okay with all of this but I'm not as mad with you as I am with Harry. He had absolutely no right to do what he did, this was none of his business. But I'm still confused because it's so unlike him to act like that."

Draco felt relieved. She would be able to forgive him in time. She was already starting to even though it was clear she just didn't want to yet, which he was okay with. "Well, I can't speak for Potter, but I do want to make sure you know I really am sorry for not telling you and I hope you understand that I just felt like I couldn't because of the circumstances."

Sam looked at him and nodded. "I understand. I'm mad but I'm not really mad at you. I haven't been all that angry with you since I thought about what Dumbledore told me. I just needed some questions answered. However I can't say the same for Harry. I won't be so forgiving to him."

Mrs. Pomfrey pulled back the curtains surrounding her bed and was surprised to see Draco. "Mr. Malfoy? Ms. Thomas, are you okay with him being here?" Sam nodded. "Well, alright then. I was just checking in on you. How are you feeling today?"

"I feel pretty good. I'm not really in pain anymore, just a little stiff."

Pomfrey nodded. "That's very good news, such good news, in fact, I think you can leave. Mr. Malfoy, just step out for a few minutes so she can get changed, please." She set down a small pile of folded clothes for Sam and both her and Draco walked out and closed the curtains.

Sam got dressed and opened the curtains. "I'm free to go now?"

"Yes, you'll be fully recovered by morning." Pomfrey smiled at her and walked away to help the other kids in the hospital wing.

Sam looked up at Draco a little awkwardly. She still couldn't decide if she was upset with him or not, but she figured she might as well forgive him, considering she really didn't want to be mad at everyone in the school. As upset as she was that they all knew more than she did and didn't tell her, life would go on and she would have to forgive and forget eventually. However she would stay mad at Harry for some time. She wasn't sure what to say to Draco so she just pushed herself into his arms for a hug. She felt the biggest sense of relief when he hugged her back. It felt like she was in the safest place in the world, somewhere where nothing could touch her and she suddenly knew she made the right decision to forgive him. He was right. She was surprised when he pushed her back a little. "How about we go get some lunch?" He smiled down at her. She could see the sincerity in his smile and nodded eagerly. He held her hand and led her to the dining hall. They both knew that she knew how to get around the castle now, for the most part, but she let him have his moment and pretend that she had no idea. When they got there she stopped. She wasn't sure if she wanted to sit at the Gryffindor table, but she couldn't sit at the Slytherin table. Draco saw her reluctance. "Come on, worst comes to worst, you ignore him, eat and leave. I'll watch and leave if I see you leave so you aren't alone."

She looked up at him. "Thank you." She gave him a grateful smile and Draco led the way in and walked to the Slytherin table.

Sam saw Hermione, Ron, and Harry. She had asked that the three of them not be allowed to visit while she was in the hospital wing as she wanted time to think and was in no state of mind to try and deal with Harry. She walked up to them and wasn't surprised when the whole hall seemed to silence and watch her walk in. She pretended she didn't notice and headed towards Hermione and Ron who seemed completely surprised to see her. She didn't even look at Harry but she knew he was there. She sat next to Hermione while Ron and Harry sat across from them. "Sam! How are you? Pomfrey wasn't allowing visitors!" Hermione started to blabber.

"I'm fine. I just needed a lot of rest, which is why I told her not to allow visitors. I had too many people coming to see me at random times and I wasn't able to get any sleep." She lied but she really didn't care. She didn't want to hurt their feelings by saying she just didn't want to see them at the time. Ron just seemed to look at her like he still couldn't believe she was actually there. "You alright, Ron?" She asked.

He just nodded and smiled. "I'm just glad you're okay!" He said happily. Hermione nodded and agreed with him happily. Harry looked at her, unsure if he should say something or not.

"Thanks, guys! It means a lot to know you were concerned about me." Sam smiled at them.

Harry decided to try talking to her to see how angry she was. "I'm glad you're alright too. I was really worried about you, Sam." Sam didn't even look at him but her smile dropped and she turned her attention to the food in front of her and started building up her plate.

"Ouch." Ron said obliviously. Hermione kicked him under the table and Harry shot him a glare. "What'd I do?" He whined.

"Sam, I was just trying to do what was best for you." Harry insisted.

She finally turned to him, staring him straight in the eye. "And what was that?"

Harry looked baffled. "I thought you deserved to know! He was hiding it from you!"

"It was none of your business! I'm starting to think you DIDN'T have my best intentions in mind."

"Oh, really? Then what was I doing?"

"I think you were jealous! I think you just wanted me to be mad at Draco!" Harry stayed quiet but glared at her hard.

"So, I've got feelings for you! Who cares? Draco is just in it for a piece of ass anyways! That's all he ever wants is to get into bed with a girl! That's all he wants with you too! I'm not blind, I've seen the way he acts around you, and the way he looks at you! That's all he wants is to get into your pants, then he'll get sick of you!" Harry was standing now, furious.

"Well, thank you for enlightening me on that, Harry. I find it pretty hard to believe that you actually have feelings for me though, considering you have a pretty PISS POOR WAY OF SHOWING IT!" She was yelling now. She was determined to stay and make him leave instead. She wasn't going to subject herself to the embarrassment of leaving only minutes after she walked in, she would hold her ground and win this argument.

"I've got a piss poor way of showing it? I've done everything I could to keep you safe!"

"Oh, is that why you came bursting into the hospital wing, trying to accuse Draco of attacking me? Is that why you forced Dumbledore to tell me about my mother because of your stupidity? You couldn't hold your tongue! You just had to throw in your two cents. You were determined to prove Draco the bad-guy even though he hasn't done a thing wrong to me! He's the reason I'm still alive right now! If it wasn't for him I wouldn't even be here! I'd be dead! And you are accusing the man who saved my life of trying to murder me with absolutely no real proof!" She shouted.

Harry was fuming now but at a loss of what to say because she was right. He stood and stormed out of the great hall. He was down but he was not out.

+END CHAPTER 8+

**So what'd you think? It's been a while, I know but please read and review!**


	9. Chapter 9

**Hey, I know It's been pretty long since my last update. Still have a lot of shit going on. My grandfather ended up passing away and he was a huge part of my life- a second father. **

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.**

+CHAPTER 9+

A couple days had passed since Sam's argument with Harry. Word spread quickly about what happened between Harry, Sam, and Draco. Most just thought Harry deserved a second chance and only really had her best interests at heart, as misguided as his actions may have been. When it came to Draco, though, a majority of the students weren't really sure what to think about their newfound friendship. No one knew that Draco and Sam kissed that night in the Hospital wing, and they hadn't kissed since. Although she had forgiven Draco for the most part, she determined that she needed more time to get to know him before she allowed him any closer, but they did spend a fair amount of time with each other. This, of course, infuriated Harry. She was doing a good job at staying away from him or just ignoring him when she had to be around him. Hermione and Ron, however, didn't disapprove of their friendship… as if it mattered what they thought. They were wary about the Malfoy as always but admitted that he seemed to be changing. Draco would greet Hermione and Ron as normal human beings, although he didn't seem to like them, he wasn't insulting them anymore. Harry he avoided completely though. Sam had asked him to stay away from Harry saying she didn't want any repeats but didn't want them screaming insults at each other in passing either. Draco had no problems with this. At this point Draco was sitting in the Slytherin common room, staring off into space. He was thinking about what he should do next. He understood why Sam was keeping their relationship at a friendship and nothing more, but he wanted more. He wasn't sure how to go about doing that, though. Years of never having to work for any girl's affection had taken their toll and made him realize, he really had no idea about the way a girl actually thought, as awful as that sounded. His leg bobbed impatiently as his stare turned into more of a frustrated glare. He knew any wrong move would land him in the dog house but no moves at all would get him absolutely nowhere. Just as he were about to head to dinner, Blaise plopped down next to him on the couch, shaking him from his train of thought.

Blaise looked the shaken blond up and down. "What's on your mind, mate?"

"What do you think?" Draco snapped.

"Tone down the hostility, what's going on? As far as I've seen, you two are getting along well and you're also succeeding in driving Potter nuts. What else could you want?"

"Her."

Blaise looked at him curiously. "I thought you already have her? You've been hanging around her enough."

"I've been thrown into the friend zone… temporarily of course." Draco grumbled out. This was embaressing.

Blaise's look proved he was a little confused. "Dude, that shit is NEVER temporary. Have you ever made it anywhere out of the 'friend-zone' with her?"

"We kissed. That's it. It was before Potter tried to accuse me of killing her. Since then, she's kept her distance. We hang around each other and talk, but she won't be alone with me ANYWHERE and she keeps our time together limited."

"Well then you might have a chance. But you're going to have to actually work at this. She's not just going to jump into your arms at this point."

"Well thanks for telling me everything I already know." Draco was getting up to leave.

"You haven't given me a chance to try and help you yet." Draco turned to look at him, unsure if he really wanted help. "If you want it, I suggest you hang around for a minute."

Draco sighed and sat back down. What did he have to lose? "What did you have in mind?"

"Well, you need to start making yourself public."

"In what sense?"

"Start making it blatantly obvious that you've got a thing for her."

"How am I supposed to do that without making a fool out of myself?"

"Sit with her at dinner tonight. That'll be a good start. We aren't confined to our house tables, I've seen people sit at other house tables. The reason why this would be so effective in getting not only her attention, but the attention of everyone else around you, is because Slytherin and Gryffindor are the two biggest rivals. Having a Slytherin sit at the Gryffindor table or vice versa is the day everyone will assume hell has frozen over." Draco sat back as if to consider it carefully. "It's also a very good start because you aren't trying to get her alone. You're definitely bringing her attention but you aren't stressing her out the way you would trying to drag her into a broom closet to get some privacy. I say it's worth a shot." Blaise shrugged and watched his reaction carefully.

"Come with me." Draco seemed to still be thinking about it.

"To sit at the Gryffindor table?" Blaise was a bit shocked. Draco simply nodded. Blaise sighed. "I guess I can, if I have to."

"You have to."

"Ugh!"

Sam was sitting with Hermione, Ron, and Harry at dinner. Hermione sat next to her and Ron and Harry sat across from her. Ron and Hermione were talking, arguing is more like it, about an essay there were assigned for their Defense Against The Dark Arts class. Harry wasn't eating, he was watching Sam. He had decided he was sick of the cold shoulder, and that he would start trying to win her back. He was in the middle of trying to put together something to say to her when he saw someone tap on her shoulder. Sam turned around and looked up. She nearly choked on her pumpkin juice when she saw Draco and Blaise standing behind her. Draco was looking down at her and Blaise was looking around at everyone else who had turned to stare at them.

"May we join you?" He tried to be polite but sincere. At this point Hermione and Ron shut right up and looked at him like he had two heads. Harry looked as if he were going to launch his fork right into Malfoy's eye.

Sam blinked a couple times and stumbled over what she was going to say until Blaise pushed his way in. "Come on, let's have an answer, I'm sick of people staring at us. Yes or no." Draco elbowed him hard in the ribs and Blaise smacked his shoulder in return.

She looked at him oddly then a smiled. "You're perfectly welcome to sit here." Harry had opened his mouth to object when he got a swift kick from Hermione from under the table.

Once they sat, the stares lessened but whispers about what was happening erupted throughout the entire dining hall. "Thank you." He smiled at her and started gathering food on his plate.

Up at the dining table for the Headmaster and Professors, Dumbledore smiled down at the sight of the two Slytherins making an attempt at friendship with the Gryffindors. "Do you see this Professor McGonagall? Professor Snape?" He was pleased to say the least.

McGonagall smiled as well. "I do, and I think it's long overdue."

Snape stared at them oddly. "I think it's sickening if you ask me."

McGonagall glared at him and Dumbledore ignored him completely, knowing that he was as happy as they were, whether he wanted to admit it or not.

Dinner ended almost as soon as it began and people started filing out. When Sam started to rise, Draco did too. He stood in front of her to stop her and took her hand in his. "Goodnight." He gave her a devilish smile and bent and kissed the top of her hand slowly. Then he straightened up and stepped aside to allow her to pass.

"G-goodnight." She looked at him curiously but seemed to rush out of the hall. She didn't look at all angry or irritated so he was confident he didn't make a wrong move. Blaise stood to join him and his smirk told Draco that Blaise agreed with him. Harry made his departure quite obvious though, glaring daggers at them.

Draco and Blaise entered the Slytherin common room unsure of what to expect as a reaction from their fellow house-mates. As they walked in, silence immediately engulfed the room and everyone turned to stare at them. Draco rolled his eyes at the crowd of silence and pushed his way through people carelessly as he made his way to his room. Blaise followed behind him nervously.

"Traitors!" One person yelled at the back of their heads. Draco stopped and turned to face him. Draco didn't know him personally. He didn't even know his name. But he looked to be about in his fifth year.

"How do you figure?" Draco challenged calmly. "Since when is it an act of treason to sit with a friend?"

The boy huffed but stood his ground. "She's a Gryffindor! We're Slytherins! We don't associate with them! We're enemies! Rivals!"

Draco took a step closer to the boy. "And what have they done to deserve such titles?" Blaise remained strong behind Draco.

"They're just different! Goody-Goody!" Draco knew he was running low on arguments.

"So being different makes them our enemies? Well no two people are exactly alike. Everyone is different does that make you my enemie?" The boy froze. He had a deer-caught-in-headlights expression. Draco Malfoy is the last person you want to be enemies with. Especially for no good reason. He shook his head 'no' feverishly. Draco was taking very slow steps toward him.

"I didn't mean-"

"Well that's what you implied. By your definition, we are indeed enemies. Does that mean there are no such thing as friends? What makes a friend? Someone who is exactly like you? Well like I said before, no two people are exactly alike so I think it's fair to say that you have no friends. This of course goes by YOUR definition. This is your, so called, 'logic'." Draco was keeping icily calm through this whole thing but the boy seemed to be panicking more and more the closer Draco got.

"That's not-"

"Well that's what you said. So that means that just because the Gryffindors have different colored uniforms and sleep in a different part of the castle, that they are our enemies. There may be people in that house that I do see as rivals or even enemies, but not that entire house. The entirety of Gryffindor has done nothing to me so how anyone can make such a generalized statement is beyond me. So if I'm a traitor for choosing to sit with a friend, then so be it." By now Draco was standing only inches away from the boy, staring him down. The boy's face was beat red. Whether from anger, embarrassment, or frustration, Draco didn't know or care. The boy broke eye contact with him to glare at the ground. It was clear who still held the dominance when it came to Slytherin house. "That's what I thought." Draco turned and continued back up to his room with Blaise at his heals. No one dared confront him or challenge him because his arguments were faultless. There really was no good reason to call Gryffindor their enemies. It was all immature and unnecessary. The rest of the Slytherins that had witnessed the boy's public embarrassment turned to either go up to their own dormitories or leave the common room altogether. The boy simply stood there and glared at the staircase that led up to Draco's room. Finally he kicked a book that had been lying on the ground and stormed out of the common room.

When Sam reached her own common room, there weren't many people there, but the ones that were gave her odd looks before turning back to whatever they were doing. She sighed and plopped down on the couch in front of the fireplace in the common room. She had a lot to think about. Why had Draco sat with her? Although she didn't mind it, she know the boundaries that had been set between Slytherin and Gryffindor. There weren't any set rules but everyone knew that the two houses weren't intended to get along. She didn't particularly care but she thought he did. He had always been careful about who was around when they interacted, when they talked, when they spent time together. She was taken aback at how he had blatantly publicized the fact that they were friends. What was he trying to do? Just then Hermione, Ron, and Harry walked into the common room. Hermione went straight for her.

"Sam, what happened with Draco today?"

"He sat with me? You were right there." Sam was being rather sarcastic and she knew she shouldn't be. At least not to Hermione, she didn't do anything. "Sorry. I don't know why he sat with me. He just did."

Hermione sighed. She didn't have a problem with them being friends at all but she still worried that Draco would hurt her. Ron was a little less okay with it but it didn't really matter. She would be friends with whoever she wanted to be friends with. Harry, of course, was even less okay with it. It infuriated him even if he caught Draco looking at her, which he did a lot. Harry simply stormed up the stairs to his dorm. Ron, feeling conflicted, decided to follow Harry and make sure he was alright. Hermione just sat quietly next to her. After a few minutes of silence Hermione finally spoke up. "You like him." It wasn't a question.

"When did I say-"

"You don't have to say it. I can tell. Just by watching the way you two interact. I don't know why you're doing this to yourself." Hermione kicked her shoes off and stretched out her legs casually.

"Doing what to myself, exactly?" Sam started to sound offended. What was she doing to hurt herself? That's exactly what she was trying to avoid.

"You've put a wall up. I can tell something happened between you two at one point. Whatever it was it changed you both. I'm not saying it's a bad thing though. What's bad is that you're trying to pretend it never happened and pretend he's nothing more than a friend. What he did today, was not an act of friendship. It's been hundreds of years since a Slytherin has sat at the Gryffindor table or vice versa. That was him trying to get your attention. That was him telling you he wants everyone to know. He doesn't want to hide in the dark. He wants you to step up with him because he knows you have feelings for him too."

Sam sat back, thinking about this. In reality she already knew all of this, she was just trying to convince herself she was wrong. She was so afraid of getting hurt more, she was trying to keep him at a safe distance. A distance where he couldn't get any closer and hurt her more. "So what should I do?" She knew there was nothing to hide from Hermione. She's observant and a genius, leaving nothing to the imagination.

"First tell me what happened between you two and why your trying to keep him away."

Sam sighed and thought about how to word it. "We kissed. While I was in the hospital, before the entire student body knew I was hurt. Then the night everyone found out, that whole episode with Harry and Draco happened, and it made me realize he made an attempt at opening up to me the other night but he didn't even begin to let me in on the more important stuff. The stuff that, considering my situation, I should've known. But after talking to Dumbledore and Draco, I realized there were reasons for his silence. He had planned to tell me more but the time wasn't right for multiple reasons. And because that night caused more problems than it fixed, mostly because of Harry, I've stayed mad at Harry but I also decided to hold Draco at a distance for a while."

Hermione nodded, thinking about it all. "Well it's not working. You can stay mad at Harry for as long as you want, even though Ron and I both prefer you two make up sooner than later, because he's not the real problem here. The one that's really causing you distress. The one that's really causing you distress is Draco. He's not doing anything to hurt you but you're hurting yourself. I can see it when you talk to him, you doing want to be sitting next to each other babbling about unimportant annoyances of the day, you want him. You want to be with him. So do it. If you are always afraid of getting hurt you won't go anywhere. You have to step up with him. He's publicly shown he cares about you, one way or another, and you've done nothing but run away from him. You hurt yourself doing that more than you hurt him."

"How do you 'see' all this stuff?" Sam's face is one of astonishment. Hermione has finally told her something she still hadn't quite figured out herself yet, that she really does have feelings for Draco.

"I'm a girl. Not only that, though, I'm your friend. Double whamy." Hermione smirked at her.

"So what should I do? Should I do something public as well?"

"You should. But what you should do exactly, is up to you. I don't think you should go sit at the Slytherin table just because the other Slytherins are much more unwelcoming but something has to be done." Hermione paused to think. "You know, the audition for the talent show is coming up. What if you can figure out something to do for the show that'll get his attention and hint your feelings to the rest of the school?" Sam thought this over.

"That's not a horrible idea, but it has horrible potential to blow up in my face."

"Maybe so, but it's definitely an act of courage. Do you have any talents that can get his attention?"

Sam paused thinking about whether or not to admit it. Finally she gave up, something had to be done. "I can sing."

+END CHAPTER 9+

**What'd you think of this chapter? I know it has been a while but I have full intentions on finishing it! Please read and review! Thank you!**


	10. Chapter 10

**Hey all! Here is chapter ten! Hope you all enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.**

+CHAPTER 10+

"You can sing?" Hermione was shocked, she'd never even heard Sam hum before. Sam just nodded. "Fantastic! Sing something! I'd love to hear you!" Sam looked around at the few straggling Gryffindors who were clearly paying absolutely no attention to either of them but still didn't feel comfortable doing it. She shook her head quickly and looked away, face going a little red. "Sam! If you can't sing in front of me and ten other people, how are you supposed to even audition? You have to sing in front of the entire school!"

"I know but… I'm not prepared for it now. I'm going to need to get used to the idea of singing in front of people for a while… and besides I don't even know what to sing."

"Okay, well is there anything else you can add to that?"

"What do you mean?" Sam asked defensively.

"I mean, can you play any sort of instrument or dance?"

Sam shuddered at the thought of trying to dance in front of the entire school and thought a little. "I can play the guitar?"

"Perfect! You should play the guitar and sing!" Hermione's excitement seemed to have no end.

"I can't!"

"Well why not?"

"I don't have a guitar here."

"Details." Hermione rolled her eyes and stood from the couch.

"That's kind of a big detail! I can't play the guitar without a guitar!" Sam was really confused.

"Let me worry about the guitar. Auditions are exactly one week from tonight, leaving you with six more days to prepare. I'll leave you be but think of what you want to sing and practice on your own while I find you a guitar." Hermione smiled at her, clearly, nerve-wracked friend and disappeared up the stairs to the girls dormitories. What on earth was Sam going to sing? She's never sang in front of people before… at least not on purpose. Memories of her first encounter with Draco resurfaced and how irritated she was with him that night but the memory only reinforced her thoughts that Draco would want to hear her sing again…

Draco emerged from his room the next morning feeling oddly well rested even though he really didn't sleep all that much. As he came down the steps and into the common room, he received a few odd looks from the Slytherins that inhabited it but nothing more. He ignored them easily and continued out the door to go to breakfast. Last night, after he argued with that boy about the Gryffindors not being enemies, he stayed up for hours thinking of different things he could do to get Sam's attention. He felt a little weird just because a lot of his ideas were so out of character for him and yet so necessary. Good thing he had enough confidence to supply the entire student body of Hogwarts otherwise he'd have quite and crawled under a table by now. As he walked down the halls he spun his wand between his fingers, thinking about how he was going to approach her at breakfast. He walked through the doors that led into the great hall and paused to look around. There weren't nearly as many students here as there are at dinner because everyone seems to vary in arrival but he was pleased to see Sam sitting with Hermione. It made his life easier that Potter and Weasley weren't there at the time to make this difficult. He strode up to her calmly and when Sam saw him she gave him a small smile and her face turned a little red. '_Cute.'_ He thought simply. The thought made him jump a little. He still wasn't used to having such soft thoughts for anyone so this jarred his confidence ever so slightly.

When he reached her he didn't say anything but he waved his wand a little and pointed it straight up to the ceiling and a thin streak of electricity shot up into the enchanted ceiling. Sam looked up immediately and everyone in the hall silenced and looked up, unsure of what to expect. The ceiling seemed to ripple a bit before the soft blue sky it replicated turned into brilliant shades of pink and purple, mimicking a sunset. Everyone stared in awe at the colors then slowly little white things began to fall slowly from the ceiling. At first they looked like snowflakes but once a few dropped in front of Sam, she saw that they were white rose petals. When she looked back at Draco, a single white rose, that seemed to sparkle, floated an inch above his wand as he held it outstretched to her. Draco was bowed low in front of her but looked her straight in the eye as she reached out to take the rose from his wand.

"Sam,"

Her hand froze, mid-reach and she searched his eyes carefully for what he was trying to say.

"Will you go to the ball with me?"

She smiled softly at him and her face turned a little redder. She relaxed a little and carefully plucked the rose from the tip of his wand. "I would love to, Draco."

He straightened up with a smile then stepped closer to her and before he turned to walk back to his table to let her breathe, he bent over and gave her the softest kiss on her cheek. Then he turned and walked back to the Slytherin table without another word. When Sam turned back to Hermione, Hermione was absolutely giddy with excitement. Sure it was Draco, and Hermione still didn't particularly like him, but she had to admit that was one of the most romantic things she had ever seen. "Sam!" She said excitedly. Sam just smiled ear to ear and giggled a little. Both girls were surprised when cheering erupted through the great hall but they were even more surprised when the loudest cheers came from the Slytherin table. Sam turned and looked back at the table and wasn't surprised when he caught her eyes immediately and they smiled at each other. The cheering died down and everyone resumed their breakfast while the white rose petals continued to fall. Sam smile didn't falter, it was glued there but she had no complaints, she readily accepted it. Harry and Ron made their way into the great hall and sat down with the girls.

"What's with all the petals? Did someone get married?" Ron said sarcastically, taking the seat next to Sam while Harry sat next to Hermione.

Hermione looked pointedly at Sam. "Oh, go ahead, the rest of the school already knows anyways." Sam said, pretending to sound annoyed but it was clear she was joking about her tone.

"Draco asked Sam to the ball!" Hermione nearly shouted it in a single breath. There was a slam and their attention turned to Harry who had slammed his fist on the table. "What?" Hermione asked indignantly.

Harry ignored her but shot a glare across the room at Draco who had been watching him carefully ever since he walked in. Harry simply rose from his seat and walked out of the great hall without another word. Ron sighed. "He's my best friend and all, but he's really been a git lately." Ron shook his head but turned back to Sam. "But congrats! I mean I hate Draco and think he's a prat but hey if you're happy, that's good enough for me." He received a swift kick under the table from Hermione. "Ow! Stop! I'm just trying to tell her to be careful! I don't trust him! And don't you think this was kind of overkill?" He asked gesturing to the rain of rose petals. His question only earned him another kick. "Merlin! I think you broke my leg!" Hermione ignored him and turned to Sam who just giggled a little.

"What he did was better than perfect." Hermione said with finality. Sam pat Ron on his shoulder with a smile. She knew that Draco wasn't his favorite person and knew they never got along. From what she's heard Ron, Harry, and Hermione were always the target of Draco's harrasement up until this year so she understood where he was coming from. She insisted she was treading these waters carefully at first but she never expected to develop such strong feelings for him but did nothing to stop it. Instead she welcomed those feelings with open arms but only because after everything that happened in the past month, she felt she really could trust him. He was just a little rough around the edges, nothing she couldn't smooth out.

The next few days seemed to fly by for both Sam and Draco. Harry seemed to completely avoid them both and Ron seemed to be doing the exact opposite. In fact, Draco caught Ron following him around the school grounds on multiple occasions in which Run would blurt out a bull excuse and run off without another word. Draco wasn't bothered by him, he more or less just ignored Ron, knowing he was only worried about Sam, and for good reason. Draco never really gave Ron a reason to trust him so he said nothing and let him try and spy on him. Hermione and Sam seemed to be glued at the hip but every now and then Sam would meet him in the library or in the courtyard and they would just sit and enjoy each other's company. Sometimes they'd talk, sometimes they'd do their homework, and sometimes he'd just watch her draw. Needless to say, they were getting along great and it seemed to just be coming naturally to them. Pansy had been making some recent attempts to get Draco's attention as well. She'd try and make her school uniform as skimpy as possible and parade herself in front of Draco who always pretended to gag and wander off when she wasn't looking. The next day was the auditions for the talent show and Dumbledore announced at dinner that they would be held in the dining hall at dinnertime. He got some complaints but reasoned that if they were to get through auditions and into the actual show, they would have to perform in front of the whole school anyways, so by auditioning in front of the school in the first place, the students who couldn't handle performing on stage would be weeded out quickly. As the show was meant to showcase people's talents and there were plenty of very talented people with stage fright, a student performing simply shouldn't have to get there hopes up at auditions then crack during the actual show. It made perfect sense but there were still some people who obviously didn't like it. There were to be 15 positions open for the show but auditions would take place during dinner so students could come up as they wished to perform. Sam seemed to be growing more and more nervous for the show. The night came and went and the morning of auditions came all too soon. Sam had lost a substantial amount of sleep the night before just worrying over the show but she had her song picked out and Hermione had indeed found her a guitar. She went through classes in a daze. She took her notes absentmindedly but avoided Draco all day leaving him very confused and a little hurt. In the few classes they had together, Draco tried to get her attention and pass her notes but she wouldn't even open them and just ignored him. She felt horrible but she knew she'd end up cracking if she tried to talk to Draco about it so she did the hardest thing she could do which was to shut him out for a day. Draco seemed to increase in anger and frustration as the day dragged on. They had become the talk of the school and when they passed each other going in opposite directions, Sam didn't even look at him and Draco tried to make a grab for her sleeve to stop her but missed, earning him odd looks from the students around them. A horrible rumor even spread that they weren't going to the ball together anymore which brought Harry out of hiding and caused Pansy to try even harder for Draco's attention. Harry just watched her carefully. He knew she was still angry with him but he was worried about her and wanted to try and figure out what was wrong with her so he approached her carefully. She saw him coming but didn't try to walk away or avoid him.

"Hey." He said warily as he sat down a few feet away from her on a bench in the court yard. She nodded in his direction. At least she acknowleged him. "Are you okay?" He prodded carefully.

"I'm fine."

He sighed. "Look, I'm sorry about the way I've been acting. I understand you have feelings for Malfoy… I don't want to keep doing this, I want us to be friends again." It was harder than he thought to force the words out.

Sam looked at him, examining him as if she didn't completely believe him. Resigning to the fact that she could see no hint of a lie or sarcasm, she nodded. "Apology accepted. Friends." She turned back to the ground and lost herself in thought again. 

"But I don't believe you." He challenged.

She looked at him, suddenly angry. "You don't believe that I accept your apology?"

"No! That you're okay. I don't believe that you're okay. Something is bothering you." It wasn't a question.

She sighed. "Yes, but I don't want to talk about it. I'll be fine after dinner tonight… I just need time to think. I promise I'll be fine though." She gave him a small smile. He nodded, knowing he wouldn't get any more from her and stood to leave.

"See you at dinner." He said carefully and she nodded back at him before he left.

Dinner really couldn't have come any sooner. Sam had managed to sneak the guitar in with a shrinking charm Hermione had taught her. She didn't want people guessing off the bat that she was going to audition. The only other person who knew was Hermione. Sam sat at the Gryffindor table and she was visibly shaking. She was sweating, bad, and she felt like she was going to puke. Dinner started and Dumbledore announced that anyone from the Hufflepuff table that wanted to audition should line up at the side of the hall and come up one by one. About five students lined up and took no more than fifteen minutes to get through them all. A couple sang and they were good but nothing all that spectacular. If you were going to sing to get into a talent show, you had to be really amazing because so many other people sing for a talent. One girl danced, she was good, and the other two juggled pins at each other. Dumbledore announced a last call for people from Hufflepuff and no one stood so he announced it was Ravenclaw's turn. Sam's condition only seemed to worsen. When she knew that the next table to be called would be Gryffindor considering he was moving from left to right across the great hall. About five times as many students auditioned from Ravenclaw. Their performances ranged from dancing, to acrobatics, to comedy, to circus acts, to more singing. Then Dumbledore announced a last call for Ravenclaw performers, one nervous looking first year got up and performed some show-y charms that were above her skill level which was fairly impressive. When she finished, Dumbledore announced that it was Gryffindor's turn. Sam was amazed at the amount of students that stood, there had to be about fifty but she felt herself frozen to her seat. She fumbled around with the mini guitar that sat in her pocket and watched people perform nervously. Hermione was looking between her and the shortening line of students from Gryffindor, in a panic. "Sam! Go!" She said in a whispered yell. Sam lowered her face to her hands, she had such horrid stage fright. The line of Gryffindors seemed to run out way to fast, she had to make a decision, and now. When the final student finished their audition, Dumbledore announced a last call for Gryffindor auditions. Just before he turned it over to the Slytherins, Sam shoved herself into a stand and refused to look anywhere but at the floor. Dumbledore just nodded and took his seat as she began to approach the makeshift stage set up in front of the professor's dining table. She sighed and turned to face the rest of the student body and saw Draco watching her carefully. She took a deep breath and forced down her nervousness knowing that if she didn't do it now, not only would she embarrass herself, but she would regret it deeply. She pulled out the mini guitar and mumbled a charm to return it to its normal size. She strummed it a couple times, making sure it was in tune then started strumming the start of the song. (Fallin' For You By: Colbie Caillat) She took a deep breath and closed her eyes as she began to sing.

"_I don't know but..._

_I think I may be _

_fallin' for you_

_Dropping so quickly_

_Maybe I should _

_keep this to myself"_

Draco was completely shocked. He didn't think in a million years she would get up in front of the school to sing. She seemed incredibly distressed that night when he had caught her. He was only one person and now she was singing in front of nearly a thousand! Her eyes opened and locked on Draco.

"_Wait until I.._

_know you better_

_I am trying.._

_Not to tell you.._

_But I want to.._

_I'm scared of what you'll say_

_So I'm hiding… _

_what I'm feeling.._

_But I'm tired of_

_Holding this inside my head"_

She was ecstatic when the nausea left her body and she felt as happy as could be. She let a smile creep onto her lips but refused to look at the expressions of the rest of the students. Her only concern at this moment was Draco.

"_I've been spending all my time_

_Just thinking about ya_

_I don't know what to do_

_I think I'm fallin' for you_

_I've been waiting all my life_

_and now I found ya_

_I don't know what to do_

_I think I'm falling for you..._

_I'm falling for you..."_

Draco's expression relaxed into a smile, a genuinely happy smile as he could tell the song was obviously meant for him.

"_As I'm standing here_

_And you hold my hand_

_Pull me towards you_

_and we start to dance"_

She started really getting into the song and swaying a little with her guitar. The smile stayed glued to her lips as she continued to sing.

"_All around us _

_I see nobody _

_Here in silence_

_It's just you and me"_

Everyone started to clap along with the beat of the song only enhancing her enthusiasm. She continued to sway with the beat.

"_I'm trying…_

_Not to tell you…_

_But I want to…_

_But I'm scared of what you'll say_

_So I'm hiding…_

_what I'm feeling..._

_But I'm tired of_

_Holding this inside my head_

_I've been spending all my time_

_Just thinking about ya_

_I don't know what to do_

_I think I'm fallin' for you_

_I've been waiting all my life_

_And now I found ya_

_I don't know what to do_

_I think I'm fallin' for you..._

_I'm fallin' for you..._

_Ooh, I just can't take it.._

_My heart is racing.._

_Emotions keep spinning out..._

_I've been spending all my.. time_

_just thinking about ya_

_I dont know what to do_

_I think I'm fallin' for you_

_I've been waiting all my..life_

_and now I found ya_

_I dont know what to do_

_I think I'm fallin' for you..._

_I'm fallin' for you..._

_I think I'm fallin' for you_

_I can't stop thinking about it_

_I want you all around me_

_And now I just can't hide it_

_I think i'm fallin' for you_

_I can't stop thinking about it_

_I want you all around me_

_And now I just can't hide it_

_I think I'm fallin' for you..._

_I'm fallin' for you..._

_Ooohhh_

_Ooh no no_

_Oooooohhhhh_

_Oooh, I'm falling' for ya"  
><em> 

When she put her guitar down she was breathing a little heavy and she finally released her gaze on Draco to look at the reactions of everyone else. They were all silent and their faces were that of awe, and shock. Then they all broke out into applause, she even got a standing ovation. She got a few choice looks from some of the other students who chose to sing but ignored those easily as she shrunk the guitar again and half ran back to her seat. When she sat down Hermione began to babble on about how amazed she was and how she loved her voice. Ron and Harry congratulated her but it was all a little fuzzy to her. She felt the biggest sense of relief she had ever felt and she finally started to eat dinner now that she could breathe again without fear of throwing up. Dumbledore concluded the auditions from Gryffindor and moved on to Slytherin. There weren't many students auditioning, about twenty or so but they all seemed to pass quickly as the adrenaline rushed out of her body as quickly as it came.

+END CHAPTER 10+

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